//Jlf,,  oS~. 


PRINCETON,  N.  J.  ^ 


Purchased   by  the   Hamill   Missionary  Fund, 


BV  2775  .M8  1904 

Morris,  Samuel  Leslie,  1854- 

At  our  own  door 


At  Our  Own  Door 


A  Study  of  Home  Mis- 
sions with  Special  Reference 
to    the    South    and    West 


v^By 


S.  L.  MORRIS,  D.D. 

Secretary  of  the  General  Assembly's  Home  Missions  Presby- 
terian Church  in  the  U.  S. 


"And  that  repentance  and  remission  of  sins 
should  be  preached  in  His  Name  among  all  Na- 
tions, BEGINNING  AT  JERUSALEM." — Luke  24  :  4y. 

"And  ye  shall  be  witnesses  unto  me  both  in 
Jerusalem,  and  in  all  Judea,  and  in  Samaria,  and 
unto  the  uttermost  part  of  the  earth." — Acts  i :  8. 


New  York  Chicago  Toronto 

Fleming    H.    Revell    Company 

London    and   Edinburgh 


Copyright,  1904,  by 

FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 

(^March) 


New  York:  158  Fifth  Avenue 
Chicago:  6-^  Washington  Street 
Toronto:  27  Richmond  Street,  W 
London:  21  Paternoster  Square 
Edinburgh:    30    St.    Mary   Street 


To  the  memory  of  my 

Sainted  Father 

who  laid  down  his  life  at  the  call  of  his  country^ 

whose  example  has  been  my  constant  inspiration  in  life^ 

and  to  my 

Aged  Mother 

who  early  impressed  me  for  Christ  and  the  Churchy 

and  who  still  lingers  as  a  benign  benediction  in  my  home 

this  volume  is  most  affectionately 

Dedicated, 


Preface 


"  Oh  !  that  mine  adversary  had  written  a  book." 
The  secretary  of  home  missions  recognizes  the  risk 
of  authorship ;  but  necessity  compels  the  venture. 
The  Southern  Presbyterian  Church  in  less  than  a 
decade  will  celebrate  its  Semi-Centennial ;  and  yet 
whilst  it  has  been  engaged  largely  in  home  mis- 
sionary efforts,  it  has  never  produced  a  book  on 
home  missions.  The  demands  for  literature  on 
this  subject  are  numerous,  widespread  and  urgent. 
The  Chattanooga  Conference  of  Young  People  on 
Missions,  held  on  Lookout  Mountain,  July  1-8, 
1903,  challenged  the  secretary  to  prepare  such  a 
manual  of  home  missions,  as  would  provide  the 
young  people  of  the  church  a  text-book  for  sys- 
tematic study  of  this  great  department  of  Chris- 
tian work.  The  succeeding  volume  is  the  answer 
to  that  challenge.  The  author  indulges  the  hope 
that  it  will  furnish  an  array  of  facts,  which  will 
not  only  instruct  the  young  people,  but  stimu- 
late their  organizations,  ladies'  societies.  Christian 
workers,  churches,  and  ministers  of  the  Gospel  to 
greater  usefulness  in  the  Master's  vineyard. 

The  writer  places  on  record  his  indebtedness  to 
the  following  books  and  pamphlets :  "  The  His- 
tory of  the  Southern  Presbyterian  Church,"  by 
Rev.  Prof.  T.  C.  Johnson,  D.  D. ;  "  Presbyterian 

5 


6  Preface 

Home  Missions,"  by  Kev.  Sherman  H,  Doyle, 
D.  D. ;  "  Under  Our  Flag,"  by  Miss  Alice  Guernsey ; 
"  Leavening  the  Nation,"  by  Kev.  Jos.  B.  Clark, 
D.  D. ;  "The  Minute  Man  on  the  Frontier,"  by 
Kev.  W.  C.  Puddefoot ;  "  Our  Country  "  and  "  The 
Twentieth  Century  City,"  by  Kev.  Josiah  Strong, 
D.  D. ;  "  Our  Forty  Years  in  the  Home  Field,"  by 
Rev.  P.  H.  Gwinn ;  "  A  Brief  History  of  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly's  Home  Missions,"  by  Kev.  J.  N. 
Craig,  D.  D. ;  "Keview  and  Outlook,"  by  Kev. 
Charles  L.  Thompson,  D.  D.,  secretary ;  the  relig- 
ious papers  of  the  church,  and  especially  the  Union 
Seminary  Magazine  and  the  Home  Mission  num- 
ber of  the  Christian  Observer.  Quotations  from 
these  are  acknowledged  in  each  instance  at  the 
proper  place ;  and  the  list  of  books  is  given  above 
for  the  information  of  those  who  desire  further 
study  of  the  subject. 

"Written  amid  the  pressure  of  office  duties,  inter- 
rupted by  absences  in  attending  church  courts 
and  other  engagements,  marred  by  many  vexatious 
causes,  known  only  to  those  similarly  situated,  no 
one  can  be  more  conscious  of  its  defects  than  the 
author  himself;  yet  he  offers  it  as  an  humble 
tribute  of  service  to  the  church  which  holds  his 
loyalty,  and  to  the  Master  he  delights  to  serve, 
with  the  prayer  that  it  may  fill  some  useful  sphere 
in  advancing  the  Kingdom  of  God  on  earth. 

S.  L.  MoREis. 

Ailania,  Ghorgia. 


Contents 

I.  Historical  -         -         -         -         -         -ii 

II.  The  Program  of  Missions     -         -         -         -  48 

III.  City  Missions       ------  63 

IV.  Mountaineers      ------  50 

V.  The  White  Man's  Burden    -         -         -         -  112 

VI.  The  Mexicans  in  Texas         -         -         -         -  130 

VII.  Indians  and  Their  Territory         -         -         "  *39 

VIII.  The  Great  West          -         -         -         -         -  163 

IX.  The  Problem  of  Missions — Foes    -         -         -  185 

X.  Woman's  Work — Friends      -         -         -         -  201 

XI.  Synodical  Evangelization     -         -         -         -  218 

XII.  Argument  and  Appeal           -         -         -         _  239 
Index          -------  255 


At  Our  Own  Door 


HISTORICAL 

As  the  oak  strikes  its  roots  into  the  virgin  soil, 
penetrating  into  the  crevices  of  granite  rock,  forc- 
ing entrance  into  the  hard  clay,  or  expanding  into 
the  more  inviting  richer  mold,  drawing  sustenance 
and  strength  from  all  sources;  so  the  Presby- 
terian Church  of  the  United  States  has  drawn  its 
life  and  strength  from  almost  all  the  States  of 
Europe.  Puritans  from  England,  Huguenots  from 
France,  Scotch-Irish  from  Ireland,  Dutch  from 
Holland,  Scotch,  Germans,  Swedes,  Swiss,  etc., 
mingle  their  blood  and  religious  life  to  form  on 
this  "Western  Continent  the  staunchest  and  sturdi- 
est, the  purest  and  most  aggressive  Presbyterian 
Church  on  earth. 

Persecution  that  scattered  the  infant  church  in 
the  early  days  of  Christianity,  sending  its  mem- 
bership "  everywhere  preaching  the  word,"  has  on 
more  than  one  occasion  been  a  blessing  in  disguise, 
God's  method  of  propagating  the  faith.  As  the 
massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew's  Day  and  the  Kevo- 
cation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes  sent  some  of  the 
best  blood  of  France  into  exile,  and  the  Nemesis 
II 


12  At  Our  Own  Door 

of  history  was  avenged  when  their  descendants 
returned  as  officers  in  the  German  army  that  con- 
quered and  humiliated  France ;  so  the  misguided 
Stuart  dynasty  forced  the  flower  of  England  into 
the  wilderness  of  America,  where  their  sons  founded 
the  greatest  of  Kepublics,  and  dealt  to  England  the 
severest  blow  in  all  her  history.  The  Presbyterian 
Church  of  America  was  born  of  persecution ;  and 
men  who  were  willing  to  suffer  for  conscience'  sake 
and  satisfied  to  exile  themselves  amidst  the  wild 
forests  and  wilder  savages  for  religious  liberty  are 
not  bad  material  out  of  which  to  build  an  enduring 
church. 

The  gigantic  failure  of  Spain  to  establish  a 
great  Empire  in  America,  as  she  entered  by  the 
Southern  gate  through  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and 
the  equally  disastrous  failure  of  France  by  the 
northern  gate  through  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence, 
can  be  explained  only  by  those  who  see  the  finger 
of  God  in  history,  preserving  America  for  the 
Anglo-Saxon  and  Protestantism.  Driven  from  the 
older  countries  of  Europe  by  persecution,  their  set- 
tlement of  a  new  Continent  was  not  so  much  in 
the  hope  of  commercial  gain  as  the  establishment 
of  an  asylum  of  religious  liberty. 

"  Perhaps  no  other  nation  in  history,  unless  it 
were  God's  chosen  people,  was  ever  more  distinctly 
religious  and  missionary  in  the  character  of  its 
early  settlers.  The  official  charter  and  commis- 
sions granted  by  foreign  courts  to  these  emigrants 
contain,  almost  without  exception,  an  explicit  rec- 
ognition of  the  divine  claim.     'The  thing  is  of 


Historical 


13 


God,'  said  the  London  Trading  Company  in  its 
letter  patent  to  the  Plymouth  pilgrims.  '  In  the 
name  of  God,  Amen'  are  the  opening  words  of 
the  Mayflower  compact,  and  the  full  spirit  and 
meaning  of  that  document  are  summed  up  in 
phrase  as  follows :  '  For  the  glory  of  God  and  the 
advancement  of  the  Christian  faith.'  The  signers 
of  this  immortal  compact  paused  on  the  threshold 
of  their  great  enterprise  '  at  a  time,'  says  Bancroft, 
'when  everything  demanded  haste,'  and  kept  a 
Sabbath  of  prayer  and  praise  on  Clark's  Island. 
.  .  .  Nor  was  New  England  the  only  spot, 
settled  by  Christian  emigrants  'for  the  glory  of 
God.'  The  Dutch  of  New  York  were  children  of 
the  Eeformation,  and  however  eager  for  trade, 
brought  their  religion  with  them,  and  it  is  claimed 
set  up  their  first  church  in  New  Amsterdam  a  full 
year  before  the  Pilgrims  landed  at  Plymouth. 
.  .  .  The  early  settlers  of  North  and  South 
Carolina  declared  themselves  to  be  actuated  by  '  a 
laudable  zeal  for  the  propagation  of  the  gospel,' 
while  Georgia,  the  last  of  the  colonies  to  be  settled, 
was  a  philanthropic  enterprise  from  the  start, 
dominated  by  godly  Moravians  from  Germany  and 
Presbyterians  from  the  Highlands  of  Scotland" 
("  Leavening  the  Nation,"  pp.  16,  17). 

The  Puritans  transplanted  their  Calvinistic  faith 
and  austere  life  to  Plymouth  Kock,  Mass. ;  Eng- 
lish Presbyterians  entered  Yirginia  through  James- 
town; the  Dutch  settled  New  York,  Maryland, 
and  some  as  far  south  as  Charleston,  S.  C;  and 
the  exiled  Huguenots  found  a  home    in    South 


14  At  Our  Own  Door 

Carolina.  But  the  most  important  factor  in  the 
Presbyterianism  of  the  United  States  was  the  com- 
ing of  large  colonies  of  Scotch-Irish,  who  entered 
chiefly  at  Philadelphia  and  Charleston.  It  is  due 
to  this  fact  that  Pennsylvania  and  the  Carolinas 
have  been  the  strongholds  of  Presbyterianism  re- 
spectively for  the  Korth  and  South.  These  two 
streams  afterwards  met  and  flowed  together, 
those  from  Pennsylvania  emigrating  westward 
and  southward  through  Virginia  and  North  Caro- 
lina, meeting  the  South  Carolina  contingent, 
making  the  Atlantic  slope  from  New  York  to 
South  Carolina  the  nursery  of  Presbyterianism  for 
the  continent. 

From  meagre  historical  data  we  learn  that  as  early 
as  1700  A.  D.,  there  were  congregations  at  Charles- 
ton and  Wilton,  S.  C,  on  Elizabeth  River  in 
Virginia,  near  the  present  site  of  Norfolk,  at 
Pocomoke  and  other  communities  in  Maryland,  at 
Philadelphia,  in  New  Jersey  and  North  Carolina, 
and  perhaps  at  other  places  where  the  records  are 
lost. 

,  Francis  Makemie  is  venerated  as  the  father  of 
Presbyterianism  in  America.  Licensed  about  1681, 
he  landed  in  Maryland  in  1683.  Having  decided 
for  Ashley  River,  S.  C,  he  vainly  tried  to  reach  his 
destination,  but  was  compelled  by  a  storm  to  re- 
turn to  the  neighborhood  of  Norfolk,  Virginia, 
where  he  ministered  to  a  company  of  English 
Puritans.  About  1689,  he  settled  to  his  life-work 
in  Maryland.  "  As  the  Greek  cities  vie  for  the 
honor  of  Homer's  birth,  so  do  the  Eastern  Shore 


Historical  15 

churches  vie  with  one  another  in  their  claims  upon 
Makemie  as  founder  or  minister."  The  continuity 
of  his  ministry  was  broken  by  a  visit  to  the  Brit- 
ish Isles  in  1691,  and  a  ministry  in  the  Barbadoes 
for  several  years.  In  1704  he  went  abroad  to 
secure  ministers  and  returned  with  John  Hampton 
of  Ireland  and  George  NcNish  of  Scotland.  It 
was  largely  through  his  instrumentality  that  the 
first  presbytery  in  America  was  founded  at 
Philadelphia  about  1705,  he  being  probably  first 
moderator,  and  the  other  ministers  being  Hampton, 
McNish,  "Wilson,  Davis,  Taylor,  and  Andrews. 
In  1707  he  visited  New  York,  and  being  refused 
permission  to  speak  in  a  church,  he  preached  in  a 
private  house ;  and  for  this  offense  was  imprisoned 
by  the  governor.  Lord  Cornbury,  for  six  weeks. 
Being  an  inconvenient  prisoner  to  hold,  he  was 
soon  set  at  liberty,  and  died  the  next  year  at  Po- 
comoke,  Maryland,  only  fifty  years  of  age. 

This  gives  an  account  of  the  organization  of  the 
Church  in  the  United  States;  but  there  were 
others  too  widely  scattered  to  enter  the  organiza- 
tion, Kev.  John  Cotton  and  Archibald  Stobo, 
near  Charleston,  several  in  IS'orth  Carolina,  New 
Jersey  and  New  York,  might  be  enumerated 
among  the  beginnings  of  Presbyterianism.  These 
scattered  pastors  and  flocks,  together  with  the 
growth  of  the  work,  justified  the  organization  of 
the  Synod  of  Philadelphia  in  1716,  and  the  com- 
pletion of  the  organization  of  the  Church  in  a 
General  Assembly  in  1789,  the  same  year  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  was  adopted. 


-^ 


16  At  Our  Own  Door 

At  this  time  the  country  had  a  population  of  five 
millions,  and  the  Presbyterian  strength  was  288 
ministers  and  licentiates,  419  churches  (one-half 
being  vacant),  and  about  twenty  thousand  com- 
municants. Such  was  the  humble  beginning  of 
Presbyterianism  on  this  Continent.  It  was  as 
"an  handful  of  corn  in  the  earth  upon  the  top 
of  the  mountains,"  but  its  fruit  "  as  the  shaking  of 
Lebanon,"  bearing  thirty,  sixty,  and  a  hundred- 
fold, now  facing  the  twentieth  century  with  a 
phalanx  of  twelve  Presbyterian  denominations  in 
the  United  States,  aggregating  twelve  thousand 
ministers,  fifteen  thousand  churches,  and  nearly 
two  millions  of  communicants. 

It  is  interesting  and  instructive  to  know  that  the 
first  recorded  grant  of  missionary  money  in  this 
country  was  made  to  the  First  Presbyterian 
Church  of  New  York  in  1719,  "to  enable  it  to 
support  the  gospel."  Did  the  Church  ever  make 
in  this  world  a  better  investment  from  a  financial 
standpoint  ?  Does  any  outlay  of  funds  ever  pay 
better  than  home  missions  ? 

Burdened  with  their  growing  spiritual  wants, 
the  presbytery,  and  afterwards  the  synod,  sent 
frequent  and  urgent "  supplications  "  to  the  Synods 
of  Scotland  and  Ireland  and  to  the  evangelical 
ministers  of  London  and  Dublin  for  ministers  and 
money  to  aid  in  their  maintenance.  Eight  nobly 
did  the  Mother  Church  respond  to  this  Macedonian 
cry  from  the  wilderness  of  America.  So  the 
Presbyterian  Church  of  the  United  States  is  the 
child  of  home  missions,  now  grown  stronger  than 


Historical  17 

the  parent,  upon  whose  shoulders  has  fallen  as  a 
mantle  the  spirit  of  home  missions. 

Ours  has  been  a  home  mission  Church  from  the 
beginning.  Before  there  was  any  organized 
presbytery,  its  ministers  were  missionaries  among 
the  Indian  tribes,  and  were  gathering  the  scattered 
settlers  and  more  recent  emigrants  into  folds  and 
organizations  for  future  presbyteries.  "They 
maintained  their  religious  life  in  their  wilderness 
homes  by  closet  and  family  worship,  by  catechet- 
ical instruction,  by  meeting  on  the  Sabbath  for 
social  worship,  prayer,  reading  the  Scriptures, 
singing,  conference  and  exhortation.  Sometimes 
their  Sabbaths  were  gladdened  by  the  missionary 
preaching  the  gospel,  administering  the  Sacra- 
ments, and  in  various  ways  animating  them  to 
devout  and  holy  living  and  the  godly  training  of 
their  children.  .  .  .  They  preached  the  gospel 
first  to  the  people  along  or  near  the  Atlantic 
coast ;  then  advanced  with  the  settlements  to  the 
foot  of  the  Alleghanies ;  then  through  the  gaps  in 
the  mountains  to  the  new  lands  beyond  where  now 
are  Pittsburg,  Cincinnati,  Nashville,  Lexington, 
Memphis,  New  Orleans,  St.  Louis,  Columbus, 
Indianapolis  ;  and  earlier  farther  north  to  Albany, 
Troy,  Schenectady,  Utica,  Eome,  Syracuse,  Au- 
burn, Geneva,  Rochester,  Buffalo,  Erie,  Cleve- 
land, Detroit,  Chicago,  and  so  on  to  the  Mississippi, 
the  Missouri,  and  eventually  to  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains, and  to  the  shores  of  the  great  ocean  beyond. 
They  established  missions  among  the  negroes  and 
the   Indians ;    sending   Occum   to  the   tribes  on 


^ 


l8  At  Our  Own  Door 

Long  Island,  and  later  to  the  Oneidas,  Mohawks, 
Senecas,  Cayugas,  and  other  families  of  the 
Iroquois  ;  and  David  Brainard,  and  afterwards  his 
brother  John,  to  the  Indian  tribes  of  ISTew  Jersey 
and  Pennsylvania — the  Delawares,  the  Shawnees, 
and  Tuscaroras :  and  later  still,  missionaries  like 
Gideon  Blackburn  to  the  Cherokees,  Choctaws, 
Sanduskies,  and  other  tribes." 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  at  the  very  first 
meeting  of  the  General  Assembly,  the  Presby- 
terian Church  signalized  its  organized  life  by  lay- 
ing hold  of  the  great  problem  of  home  missions. '^ 
The  Committee  on  Bills  and  Overtures  recom- 
mended "  that  the  state  of  the  frontier  settlements 
should  be  taken  into  consideration,  and  mission- 
aries should  be  sent  to  them"  (Minutes,  1789,  p. 
10).  A  committee  of  two  was  appointed  to  "  de- 
vise such  measures  as  might  be  calculated  to  carry 
the  mission  into  execution."  The  committee  re- 
ported asking  that  each  of  the  synods  be  requested 
to  recommend  to  the  General  Assembly  at  their 
next  meeting  two  members  well  qualified  to  be  em- 
ployed in  missions  on  the  frontier ;  and  the  pres- 
byteries were  strictly  enjoined  to  take  special  col- 
lections during  the  year  for  defraying  the  neces- 
sary expenses  of  the  missions. 

In  obedience  to  the  order  of  the  General  As- 
sembly, the  Synod  of  New  York  and  New  Jersey 
recommended  to  the  Assembly  of  1790  Kev.  Nathan 
Her  and  Joseph  Hart.  The  Synod  of  Philadel- 
phia nominated  Kev.  Dr.  George  Dufiield,  but  his 
untimely  death  prevented  his  entering  upon  the 


Historical 


19 


work.  The  Synod  of  Yirginia  reported  that  it  did 
not  have  an  account  of  the  proceedings  of  the  As- 
sembly, but  "  substantially  complied  with  the  de- 
sign of  that  mission  with  an  arrangement  of  their 
own  at  the  last  meeting  "  (Mins.,  pp.  23,  25).  In- 
formation was  received  by  the  Assembly  that  the 
Synod  of  the  Carolinas  was  supporting  its  own 
missionaries.  Eeturns  from  that  first  collection  for 
home  missions  ordered  by  the  Assembly  showed 
an  aggregate  of  about  $400.  The  Assembly 
adopted  a  form  of  commission  for  the  missionary 
and  required  him  "  to  keep  a  distinct  journal  of  his 
progress,  and  to  make  report  to  the  next  General 
Assembly."  The  effect  of  this  movement  can  be 
but  slightly  estimated,  considering  the  fact  that 
nearly  a  hundred  thousand  missionaries  have 
served  in  this  capacity  under  the  commission. 

The  minutes  of  the  Assembly  show  that  the  sub- 
ject of  home  missions  came  in  for  a  full  share  of 
consideration  at  each  meeting  of  the  Assembly. 

In  1798  it  took  particular  action  regarding  the 
character  of  the  men  to  be  commissioned,  and  the 
tenor  of  their  preaching  and  other  services.  It 
declared  that  "  the  missionaries  should  be  men  of 
ability,  piety,  zeal,  prudence,  and  popular  talents." 
They  were  also  to  preach  the  important  doctrines 
of  grace,  to  organize  churches  where  opportunity 
offered,  and  administer  the  ordinances  and  instruct 
the  people  from  house  to  house  and  with  the  self-de- 
nial of  their  Master  be  wholly  devoted  to  their  min- 
istry (Minutes,  p.  113). 

In   1801  the  General  Assembly  took  the  im- 


20  At  Our  Own  Door 

portant  step  resulting  in  the  "  Plan  of  Union  "  with 
the  Congregational  Church,  "  to  promote  the  spirit 
of  accommodation  between  those  inhabitants  of 
the  new  settlements  who  hold  the  Presbyterian 
and  those  who  hold  the  Congregational  form  of 
Government,"  providing  that  Presbyterian  congre- 
gations might  settle  Congregational  pastors  and 
vice  versa.  It  seems  to  have  originated  in  a  spirit 
of  brotherly  love  and  the  exigencies  of  scattered 
communities ;  but  it  has  since  been  repudiated  and 
repented  by  both  churches.  From  the  Congrega- 
tional standpoint  the  author  of  "Leavening  the 
Nation  "  asserts :  "  It  was  a  plan  without  thought, 
hope  or  faith  as  to  the  future  of  America ;  a  hitch- 
ing of  her  home-missionary  wagon  to  a  stake  in- 
stead of  a  star.  .  .  .  Presbyterianism  had 
never  proved  indigenous  to  the  soil  east  of  the 
Hudson,  and  by  an  illogical  parity  of  reasoning, 
Congregationalism  was  assumed  to  be  equally 
foreign  to  soil  west  of  that  river.  Hence  it  was 
not  uncommon  for  New  England  pastors  to  advise 
their  emigrating  members  '  to  be  loyal  Presbyte- 
rians at  the  west.'  Students  in  the  seminary  were 
taught  that '  Congregationalism  is  a  river  rising  in 
New  England  and  emptying  itself  south  and  west 
into  Presbyterianism ' "  (p.  40),  From  the  Presby- 
terian standpoint  it  was  the  means  of  introducing 
into  its  harmonious  fold  a  new  theology  and  a  dis- 
cordant element,  which  finally  rent  the  Presby- 
terian Church  asunder  in  the  great  schism  of  1837, 
which  was  not  healed  till  1870 ;  and  which  has 
again  brought  into  one  fold  at  least  of  the  Presby- 


Historical  21 

terian  Church  men  of  widely  divergent  views, 
making  always  imminent  the  possibility  of  another 
great  schism. 

One  hundred  years  ago  the  Assembly  of  1802 
took  a  step  in  advance  by  appointing  a  Standing 
Committee  on  Home  Missions,  consisting  of  seven 
members,  four  ministers  and  three  elders,  whose 
duty  it  should  be  to  collect  information  rela- 
tive to  missions  and  missionaries,  designate  the 
places  where  missionaries  should  be  employed,  to 
nominate  missionaries  to  the  Assembly,  and  gen- 
erally to  transact  under  the  direction  of  the  As- 
sembly the  missionary  business  (Minutes,  pp.  25Y, 
258,  259).  This  was  the  beginning  of  the  organ- 
ized home  mission  work  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church.  Heretofore  it  had  been  conducted  directly 
by  the  action  of  the  Assembly.  Henceforth  the 
work  would  be  conducted  by  a  permanent  com- 
mittee making  annual  reports  to  the  Assembly  of 
its  sessions. 

Among  the  earliest  appointments  were  Rev. 
Gideon  Blackburn  to  the  Cherokee  Indians  of 
Tennessee,  and  Licentiate  Jas.  Hoge,  of  Lexington 
Presbytery,  "  to  serve  for  six  months  in  the  State 
of  Ohio  and  the  Natchez  district."  Who  can  esti- 
mate the  influence  of  these  remarkable  men  upon 
the  destiny  of  the  church  and  the  evangelization 
of  the  country !  In  the  spirit  of  Abraham  many 
such  men  "  called  of  God  "  have  gone  out  by  faith, 
"  not  knowing  whither,"  but  in  the  providence  of 
God  to  inaugurate  some  new  and  important  de- 
parture for  the  enlargement  of  the  kingdom  of 


22  At  Our  Own  Door 

God.     "  "When  the  historian  writes  the  history  of 
national  progress  in  the  nineteenth  century,  he  will 
first  of  all  take  account  of  the  home  missionary. 
The  march  of  our  civilization  is  to  the  music  of  our 
religion.     This  gave  the  inspiration.     "Without  that 
music  the  pioneer  had  not  marched  to  such  victory  " 
(Dr.  C.  L.  Thompson).     To  the   fidelity  of  these 
home  missionaries  and  the  character  of  their  work, 
Dr.  H.  C.  Minton  bears  testimony  :     "  They  need 
no   mead  of  praise,  no  word  of   cheer — and  too 
often  they  get  none.     The  foreign  missionary  gets 
his  '  year  off '  now  and  then,  but  our  solitary  home 
missionary,  plodding  on  year  after  year,  never.    I 
have  seen  something  of  the  life  and  work  of  our 
home  missionaries  in  the  west,  and  I  believe  that, 
for  hard  work  and  poor  pay,  and  small  stint  of 
appreciation,  and  all  else  which  the  world  and 
the  flesh  eschew  and  fain  would  avoid,  the  home 
missionary  in  our  western  states  and  territories  is 
the  peer  of  many  of  those  who  are  carrying  the 
gospel  to  the    far    away    heathen.     There  is  a 
romance  of  the  work  in  either  case.     They  are  all 
empire-builders  alike.     They  bring  to  their  work 
richer  tribute  than  even  Cecil  Khodes  could  com- 
mand.    They  build  themselves  into  their  work; 
and  this  is  just  as  true  of  the  missionaries  of  Iowa 
and  Dakota  and  California  as  it  is  of  those  of 
Japan  and  China  and  the  islands  of  the  sea.     It  is 
the  romance  of  faith  and  heroism,  and  trial  and 
self-sacrifice,  but  it  is  also  the  romance  of  promise 
and  patriotism  and  service  and  of  the  crown  at 
last." 


Historical  23 

The  increase  of  population  necessitated  a  still 
further  advance  of  the  work,  and  so  the  Assembly 
of  1809  gives  authority  to  the  presbyteries  to  em- 
ploy missionaries  in  their  own  bounds  at  such 
places  as  seemed  to  them  to  have  the  greatest 
need  of  missionary  labor  ;  and  the  next  Assembly 
in  1810  authorizes  the  publication  of  the  first  mis- 
sionary periodical  by  the  Committee  of  Missions, 
to  be  entitled  Missionary  Intelligence. 

The  year  1816  marks  a  great  change  in  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  work,  when  the  Assembly 
considered  it  necessary  to  make  larger  plans  for 
carrying  on  the  work,  and  erected  the  Committee 
of  Missions  into  a  Board,  "with  full  power  to 
transact  all  the  business  of  the  missionary  cause, 
only  requiring  the  Board  to  report  annually  to 
the  General  Assembly."  It  was  entitled  "  The 
Board  of  Missions,  acting  under  authority  of  the 
General  Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in 
the  United  States" ;  and  was  authorized  to  appoint 
missionaries  whenever  they  may  deem  it  proper ; 
to  make  such  advances  to  missionaries  as  may  be 
judged  necessary ;  to  take  such  measures  for 
establishing  throughout  our  churches  auxiliary 
missionary  societies,  and  generally  to  conduct  the 
work  of  home  missions  in  all  its  phases. 

It  would  be  impossible  in  this  brief  sketch  to 
follow  in  detail  all  of  the  home  missionary  opera- 
tions of  the  Church ;  for  the  history  of  the  Church 
is  largely  a  history  of  missions.  Before  we  begin 
to  follow  the  separate  fortunes  of  the  Southern 
branch  of  the  Church,  we  can  quote  in  passing 


24  At  Our  Own  Door 

only  the  famous  overture  to  the  Assembly  of  1831, 
offered  by  Dr.  John  H.  Rice,  founder  of  Union 
Theological  Seminary  in  Virginia,  in  which  he 
asks  the  Assembly  to  recognize  more  emphatically 
the  mission  of  the  Church :  "  First,  That  the  Pres- 
byterian Church  in  the  United  States  is  a  mis- 
sionary society,  the  object  of  which  is  to  aid  in  the 
conversion  of  the  world ;  and  that  every  mem- 
ber of  the  Church  is  a  member  for  life  of  the 
said  society,  and  bound  in  the  maintenance  of 
his  Christian  character  to  do  all  in  his  power 
for  the  accomplishment  of  this  object.  Second, 
Ministers  of  the  gospel  in  connection  with  the 
Presbyterian  Church  are  most  solemnly  required 
to  present  this  subject  to  the  members  of  their 
respective  congregations,  using  every  effort  to 
make  them  feel  their  obligations  and  to  induce 
them  to  contribute  according  to  their  ability." 
It  is  said  by  Dr.  T.  C.  Johnson  in  his  history,  that 
"this  paper  stirred  the  Church."  It  were  "a 
consummation  devoutly  to  be  wished"  if  the 
great  truth  of  this  overture  could  find  a  per- 
manent abode  in  the  consciousness  of  the  Churchy 
and  arouse  her  to  a  higher  appreciation  of  her 
great  and  chief  mission  among  men. 

The  Southern  Presbyterian  Church  "  was  born 
amid  the  awful  throes  of  Civil  War.  The  growth 
of  conflicting  social  and  political  opinions  in  the 
great  commonwealth  had  caused  a  rupture  be- 
tween the  North  and  South,  across  whose  ever- 
widening  chasm  the  arms  of  the  Church  could  not 
reach. 


Historical  25 

"  The  smoke  of  battle  around  Fort  Sumter  had 
scarcely  cleared  away,  and  the  whole  country  was 
swept  by  a  wave  of  tragic  emotion,  when  the 
General  Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian  Church 
met  in  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  May,  1861.  Under 
stress  of  an  excitement  that  carried  many  of  the 
commissioners  off  their  feet,  the  famous  *  Spring 
Resolutions '  were  passed,  which  effectually  severed 
the  ecclesiastical  bonds  between  North  and 
South. 

"The  paper  embodying  these  resolutions  was 
considered  by  the  Southern  Commissioners  as  *  a 
writ  of  ejectment '  of  all  that  part  of  the  Church 
in  the  bounds  of  the  territory  that  had  seceded 
from  the  Union  ;  and  it  became  the  occasion  of 
the  withdrawal  of  forty-seven  presbyteries  from 
the  old  Church.  These  presbyteries  through 
their  commissioners  met  in  the  fair  city  of 
Augusta,  Georgia,  December  4,  1861,  and  or- 
ganized the  General  Assembly  of  the  Confederate 
States,  now  popularly  known  as  the  Southern 
General  Assembly. 

"  The  conduct  of  this  Assembly  at  the  first  meet- 
ing presents  to  the  world  a  sublime  spectacle  of 
faith.  With  dismal  and  bloody  civil  strife  abroad 
in  the  land,  the  roar  of  cannon  borne  upon  every 
breeze,  sectional  feeling  running  high,  and  com- 
pelling brethren  of  like  religious  faith  to  go  apart, 
that  memorable  gathering  of  God's  servants  rose 
sheer  above  the  surroundings  to  the  contemplation 
of  the  Saviour's  farewell  command,  and  looking 
out  upon  the  whole  world  as  their  field  of  opera- 


26  At  Our  Own  Door 

tion,  accepted  the  divine  charge  in  the  following 
beautiful  words :  '  The  General  Assembly  desires 
distinctly  and  deliberately  to  inscribe  on  our 
Church's  banner  as  she  now  first  unfolds  it  to  the 
world,  in  immediate  connection  with  the  headship 
of  her  Lord,  His  last  command,  "  Go  ye  into  all  the 
world,  and  preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature," 
regarding  this  as  the  great  end  of  her  organiza- 
tion'"    (Rev.  P.  H.  Gwinn). 

Concerning  the  elements  which  made  up  the 
constituency  of  the  Southern  Church,  Dr.  Moses 
D.  Hoge  testifies  that  these  several  strains  of 
European  Presbyterianism  were  so  blended  as  to 
make  "  a  body  of  Christians  singularly  homogene- 
ous, conservative,  truth-loving,  and  ardently  de- 
voted to  right  and  liberty.  The  courtly  and 
cultivated  Huguenot,  the  stern  and  simple-hearted 
Highlander,  the  strong  earnest  faithful  Scotch- 
Irish,  the  conscientious  Puritan,  and  the  frank, 
honest  Teuton,  contributed  of  the  wealth  of  their 
character  and  the  glory  of  their  history.  Devo- 
tion to  principle  was  the  guiding  star  of  their 
action." 

In  1859,  two  years  before  the  separation,  the 
General  Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian  Church 
having  its  office  of  home  missions  in  I^ew  York 
established  a  Southwestern  Advisory  Committee 
of  Domestic  Missions  in  New  Orleans.  In  the 
division  of  the  Church  this  committee  had  left  to 
it  no  other  course  than  that  of  independent 
action.  It  reported  to  the  first  General  Assembly 
of  the  Southern  Church  in  Augusta,   Ga.,   De- 


Historical  27 

cember  4,  1861,  and  turned  over  by  request  its 
records,  work,  and  funds  to  that  Assembly. 

Instead  of  a  Board  of  Missions,  the  Southern 
Assembly  adopted  the  principles  of  Dr.  J.  H. 
Thornwell  in  his  contention  against  Boards,  and 
appointed  "  An  Executive  Committee  of  Domestic 
Missions,"  located  at  New  Orleans,  La.,  with  Rev. 
John  Leyburn,  D.  D.,  as  Secretary.  The  Execu- 
tive Committee  differs  from  the  Board  in  that  it  is 
more  directly  amenable  to  the  Assembly,  and  is 
reappointed  at  each  meeting  of  the  Assembly. 

Under  the  exigencies  of  the  war,  the  location 
of  the  Committee  was  changed  from  Xew  Orleans 
to  Athens,  Ga.,  then  to  Montgomery,  Ala.,  and 
finally  combined  with  that  of  foreign  missions  at 
Columbia,  S.  C,  with  Dr.  John  Leighton  Wilson 
as  Secretary.  "  During  the  war  the  principal  work 
of  the  Committee  was  that  of  providing  chaplains 
for  the  army.  About  one  hundred  chaplains  were 
supported  from  this  treasury.  It  will  never  be 
possible  in  this  world  to  estimate  the  value  of  that 
camp  ministry.  Religious  interest  was  frequently 
profound,  with  many  professions  of  faith.  Many 
brave  soldiers  went  directly  from  religious  worship 
to  death.  Many  received  the  ministrations  of 
these  chaplains  in  hospitals,  and  many  survived 
the  awful  conflict  and  date  their  religious  life  and 
Christian  character  to  the  faithful  work  of  these 
godly  and  noble  servants  of  God "  (Dr.  J.  N. 
Craig). 

"  The  Advisory  Committee  had  been  created  by 
an  order  of  the  General  Assembly  of  1859,  and 


28  At  Our  Own  Door 

had  gone  into  active  operation  in  November  of 
that  year.  It  had  presented  two  annual  reports  to 
the  old  Assembly  through  the  parent  Board.  On 
March  1,  1861,  it  had  a  balance  in  its  treasury  of 
$7,Y29.55  ;  it  had  received  between  March  and 
E'ovember  $4,490.37,  having  thus  during  those 
eight  months  $12,219.92.  About  forty  mission- 
aries were  on  November  1st  in  commission,  which 
was  about  the  number  in  commission  at  the  meet- 
ing of  the  Philadelphia  Assembly.  Through  the 
good  providence  of  the  blessed  Master  and  Head 
amidst  the  terrible  convulsions  of  the  times,  the 
work  of  missions  had  moved  on  without  a  jar. 
One  cannot  fail  to  notice  the  wonderful  manner  in 
which  God  had  prepared  the  Southern  Presby- 
terian Church  for  the  storm,  in  the  creation  of  this 
agency,  without  which  domestic  missions  upon  her 
extended  frontier  must  have  been  brought  ab- 
ruptly to  a  close,  and  many  faithful  laborers  with- 
out a  warning  cast  loose  upon  the  world  without 
visible  prospect  of  support  for  themselves  and  their 
families  "  (Dr.  T.  C.  Johnson). 

At  this  first  meeting  of  the  Assembly,  the  duties 
of  the  Church  Extension  Committee  as  organized 
under  the  old  Assembly  were  assigned  to  this 
Committee  of  Domestic  Missions ;  but  a  still 
heavier  responsibility  was  laid  upon  its  shoulders 
when  the  Assembly  gave  it  as  wards  the  4,000,000 
of  negroes  in  the  South,  by  passing  the  following 
resolution : 

"That  the  great  field  of  missionary  operation 
among  our  colored  population  falls  more  imme- 


Historical  29 

diately  under  the  care  of  the  [Committee  of  Do- 
mestic Missions  ;  and  that  the  committee  be  urged 
to  give  it  serious  and  constant  attention,  and  the 
presbyteries  to  cooperate  with  the  committee  in 
securing  pastors  and  missionaries  for  this  field  " 
(Minutes,  p.  20).  That  the  spiritual  interests  of 
these  wards  were  not  neglected  is  evident  from  the 
fact  that  such  men  (than  whom  none  were  greater) 
as  Kevs.  Joseph  Stiles,  D.  D.,  Flinn  Dickson,  D. 
D.,  John  B.  Adger,  D.  D.,  John  L.  Girardeau,  D. 
D.,  and  Charles  A.  Stillman,  D.  D.,  devoted  a  large 
part  of  their  ministerial  life  as  pastors  and  shep- 
herds of  the  colored  people.  This  department  of 
home  missions  finally  developed  into  an  Executive 
Committee  of  Colored  Evangelization,  with  Rev. 
Dr.  A.  L.  Phillips  as  efficient  Secretary,  and  now 
ably  managed  by  Rev.  Dr.  J.  G.  Snedecor,  Secre- 
tary. Tuscaloosa  Institute  was  erected  to  train 
for  their  needs  a  colored  ministry,  which  has  al- 
ready done  a  noble  work  in  this  sphere. 

One  more  special  item  of  our  first  Assembly 
calls  for  distinct  notice,  its  characteristic  action  in 
regard  to  the  work  among  the  Indians.  It  was 
the  first  foreign  mission  work  attempted  by  the 
Southern  Church,  and  would  not  be  noticed  in  this 
sketch  of  home  missions  but  for  the  fact  that  in 
1889  the  Indian  work  was  transferred  to  the  Ex- 
ecutive Committee  of  home  missions,  and  is  now 
an  important  factor  in  this  department.  It  illus- 
trates also  the  fact  that  home  and  foreign  missions 
are  essentially  one,  and  so  often  overlap  that  it  is 
impossible  to  distinguish  between  them. 


30 


At  Our  Own  Door 


The  Indians  of  the  Territory  chose  to  cast  in 
their  lot  with  the  South,  and  it  is  estimated  that 
the  Choctaw  nation  furnished  fully  3,000  soldiers 
for  service,  and  the  Cherokees  nearly  2,000.  Eev. 
J.  Leighton  "Wilson,  whom  Dr.  R.  L.  Dabney  char- 
acterized as  one  who  "  wielded  more  real  power  in 
the  Southern  Presbyterian  Church  than  any  other 
man  in  it,"  interested  the  Church  in  these  Indian 
tribes,  raised  and  expended  about  $20,000  among 
them  in  missions  during  1861.  Having  made  a 
personal  visit  to  the  Indian  Territory,  he  made  a 
report  to  the  Assembly  as  provisional  Secretary, 
whereupon  the  Assembly  passed  the  following 
resolution,  in  which  Dr.  T.  C.  Johnson  says,  "  it 
betrayed  a  glorious  missionary  zeal." 

"  Resolved,  2.  That  the  Assembly  accepts  with 
joyful  gratitude  to  God  the  care  of  these  missions 
among  our  southwestern  Indian  tribes,  the  Choc- 
taws,  Chickasaws,  Creeks,  Seminoles,  and  Chero- 
kees, thus  thrown  upon  them  by  His  providence : 
missions  whose  whole  history  has  been  signalized 
by  a  degree  of  success  attending  few  other  modern 
missions ;  to  a  people  comprising  nearly  seventy 
thousand  souls,  to  whom  we  are  bound  by  obliga- 
tions of  special  tenderness  and  strength,  and  whose 
spiritual  interests  must  ever  be  dear  to  the  Chris- 
tians of  this  land. 

"  And  the  Assembly  assures  these  people  and  the 
beloved  missionaries  who  have  so  long  and  success- 
fully labored  among  them  of  our  fixed  purpose 
under  God  to  sustain  and  carry  forward  the  blessed 
work,  whose  foundations  have  been  so  nobly  and 


Historical  31 

deeply  laid.  We,  therefore,  decidedly  approve  of 
the  recommendations  of  the  report,  that  six  new 
missionaries  be  sent  to  this  field  speedily,  two  of 
them  to  commence  in  new  missions  among  the 
Cherokees,  and  that  a  few  small  boarding-schools 
be  established  with  the  special  design  of  raising  up 
a  native  ministry. 

"  3.  That  in  the  striking  fact  that  the  same  up- 
heaving and  overturning  that  have  called  us  into  ex- 
istence as  a  distinct  organization  and  shut  us  out 
from  present  access  to  distant  nations  have  also  laid 
thus  upon  our  hearts  and  hands  these  interesting 
missions  with  their  fifteen  stations,  twelve  or- 
dained missionaries,  and  sixteen  hundred  com- 
municants, so  at  the  very  moment  of  commencing 
our  separate  existence  we  find  them  forming  in 
fact  an  organized  part  of  our  body ;  and  also  in 
the  gratifying  promptitude  with  which  our  Church 
has  advanced  to  their  support — the  Assembly  recog- 
nizes most  gratefully  the  clear  foreshadowing  of  the 
Divine  purpose  to  make  our  beloved  Church  an 
eminently  missionary  Church  ;  and  a  heart-stirring 
call  upon  all  her  people  to  engage  in  this  blessed 
work  with  new  zeal  and  self-denial "  (Minutes, 
pp.  16,  17). 

Keports  from  the  Indian  Presbytery  have  been 
irregular  and  very  unsatisfactor}'^,  but  statistics 
show  that  about  2,100  have  been  received  on  pro- 
fession of  faith,  and  about  300  by  certificate,  mak- 
ing an  average  of  about  sixty  a  year.  It  is  true 
that  our  roll  now  contains  scarcely  a  thousand 
communicants  among  them,  but  it  can  be  partly 


32  At  Our  Own  Door 

accounted  for  by  the  fact  that  owing  to  the  scarcity 
of  funds  to  prosecute  the  work  the  whole  northern 
section  of  the  Indian  Territory  was  transferred 
to  the  Northern  Church.  Death  explains  the 
remainder. 

Eecently  at  a  meeting  of  the  Indian  Presbytery, 
Rev.  Silas  Bacon,  a  full-blood  Choctaw  preacher 
said :  "  It  is  often  asked  what  has  become  of  the 
money  spent  on  Indian  missions.  If  you  will  come 
with  me  to  yon  cemetery,  I  will  show  you  the 
graves  of  hundreds  of  the  sainted  dead.  Is  the 
money  wasted  that  filled  these  graves  with  Chris- 
tians instead  of  heathen  ?  "  Let  the  Church  hear 
and  answer  that  question.  If  Indian  Presbytery 
cannot  account  to  the  Church  on  earth  in  num- 
bers for  the  money  expended,  she  can  render  good 
account  to  the  Church  in  glor}'^ !  "  The  Lord  shall 
count,  when  He  writeth  up  the  people,  that  this 
man  was  born  there." 

Rev.  John  Ley  burn  served  the  Church  accept- 
ably as  Secretary  of  domestic  missions  for  two 
years;  and  then  foreign  and  domestic  missions 
were  united  under  the  wise  management  of  Dr. 
John  Leighton  Wilson,  who  for  fourteen  years 
had  been  missionary  in  Africa,  a  man  of  eminent 
piety,  great  prudence,  and  forethought  well  nigh 
inspired,  raised  up  of  God  to  serve  the  Church  in 
time  of  greatest  peril.  These  were  dark  days  of 
disaster,  ruin,  bloodshed  and  agony.  "  The  ma- 
jority of  the  male  membership  entered  the  army 
of  the  Confederacy,  and  consecrated  their  lives  and 
property  to  the  cause  of  their  country.     Ministers 


Historical 


33 


left  their  churches  and  joined  the  army  as  chap- 
lains. The  treasury  of  domestic  missions  was  ex- 
hausted to  keep  religion  alive  within  the  camp. 
These  were  not  years  of  gospel  expansion,  but  of 
gracious  ministry  to  a  noble  army  whose  ranks 
were  constantly  thinning,  to  brave  soldiers,  many 
of  whom  went  straight  from  religious  worship  to 
death. 

"  And  after  the  war  what  ?  The  horrors  of  re- 
construction;  the  tattered  remnants  of  a  once 
glorious  army,  broken  in  fortune  and  spirit; 
smoking  ruins  and  barren  fields;  thousands  and 
thousands  of  negroes  invested  with  the  elective 
franchise,  and  through  the  aid  of  carpet-baggers, 
become  the  dominant  force  in  political  life ;  once 
prosperous  churches  reduced  to  poverty,  and  va- 
cant because  their  pastors  had  perished  in  battle, 
or  were  compelled  to  betake  themselves  to  bread- 
winning  ;  colleges  robbed  of  their  endowments, 
and  theological  seminaries  closed ;  a  generation  of 
noble  men  fallen  asleep,  with  few  or  none  to  take 
their  places ;  the  walls  of  Zion  broken  down,  and 
the  Southern  Presbyterian  Church  but  '  a  shell  of 
an  organization,  with  a  thin  clerical  roll  and  a 
long  list  of  vacant  churches.' 

"  Crushed  to  the  dust  by  the  terrible  events  of 
war,  and  chastened  by  many  sorrows,  the  brave 
people  of  the  South  possessed  still  the  faith  of 
their  fathers.  In  the  face  of  a  stern  military 
despotism,  they  began  to  build  with  strenuous 
hand  upon  the  ruins  of  better  days  almost  before 
the  camp-fires  had  died  away.    In  church  matters, 


34  At  Our  Own  Door 

as  in  everything  else,  it  was  like  starting  afresh. 
There  was  much  to  be  done — a  ministry  educated, 
houses  of  worship  rebuilt,  broken  down  churches 
revived,  officers  found  and  elected,  and  ministerial 
support  secured  "  (Rev.  P.  H.  Gwinn). 

Yet  in  these  adverse  and  forbidding  circum- 
stances the  record  of  the  Committee  shows  that  it 
aided  in  the  support  of  220  ministers.  At  the 
same  time  it  assisted  in  erecting  and  repairing 
thirty  churches  at  a  cost  of  $8,000.  The  faith  of 
the  Church  during  her  baptism  of  fire,  her  courage 
in  supreme  danger,  her  patient  suffering  in  defeat, 
her  determined  resolution  in  great  poverty  to  arise 
and  rebuild  her  broken  walls,  her  steadfast  pur- 
pose turning  defeat  into  victory,  make  her  worthy 
of  a  place  in  history  by  the  side  of  Nehemiah,  and 
are  the  admiration  alike  of  friend  and  foe. 

In  1866  under  the  weighty  influence  of  the 
memorial  of  Dr.  J.  Leighton  Wilson,  the  Assembly 
converted  the  Committee  of  Domestic  Missions 
into  the  Committee  of  Sustentation.  The  time 
had  not  come  for  advancing  "  into  the  regions  be- 
yond." The  Church  felt  the  need  of  sustaining 
the  organizations  already  established,  and  rehabil- 
itating that  which  had  fallen  into  decay.  That 
were  work  enough  at  present  to  occupy  hand  and 
head  and  heart. 

The  newly  organized  Committee  of  Sustentation 
girded  itself  to  the  task,  and  announced  as  its 
mission  a  fourfold  purpose :  "  1.  To  aid  feeble 
churches  in  the  support  of  their  pastors  and  sup- 
plies.    2.  To  aid  in  the  support  of  missionaries 


Historical  35 

and  evangelists  wherever  such  aid  is  asked.  3.  To 
assist  in  rebuilding  and  repairing  church  edifices 
wherever  the  people  have  not  the  means  of  them- 
selves to  do  it.  4.  To  assist  missionaries  or  min- 
isterial laborers  in  getting  from  one  field  to  an- 
other where  they  are  without  the  means  of  doing 
this  themselves  "  (Minutes,  1867,  pp.  155,  156). 

Ail  funds  went  into  a  common  treasury,  and 
each  presbytery  drew  upon  that  fund  according 
to  its  particular  needs  and  the  resources  of  the 
treasury.  This  plan  modeled  after  the  sustenta- 
tion  plan  of  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland  would 
give  unity  to  the  whole  Church.  Carrying  out  the 
injunction  of  Scripture,  "Bear  ye  one  another's 
burdens,"  it  transformed  the  Church  into  one 
great  Presbyterian  Brotherhood,  by  which  the 
stronger  presbyteries  rallied  to  the  support  of  the 
weaker ;  and  it  was  hoped  a  fund  would  be  left 
always  as  a  surplus  to  push  the  work  "  into  the 
regions  beyond." 

The  Committee  did  noble  service  to  the  Church 
and  the  cause  of  Christ.  Many  weak  churches 
became  self-supporting,  and  the  Church  grew  and 
prospered.  However,  no  machinery  is  perfect, 
and  various  difficulties  were  raised.  Whatever  of 
failure  resulted,  was  due,  not  so  much  to  defective 
plan  as  to  the  lack  of  hearty  cooperation.  Some 
presbyteries  refused  their  cooperation  altogether ; 
others  promised  to  give  the  Committee  a  per  cent, 
of  collections,  which  was  carelessly  performed ; 
many  zigzagged  back  and  forth  from  cooperation 
to  non-cooperation,   cultivating  unwittingly  the 


36  At  Our  Own  Door 

spirit  of  independence  and  sadly  marring  the  unity 
of  the  spirit  and  the  unity  of  the  cause.  Still  the 
work  grew,  and  the  duties  of  the  combined  offices 
of  foreign  missions  and  sustentation  became  too 
burdensome  for  even  such  strong  shoulders  as 
those  of  Dr.  Wilson ;  consequently,  "  in  1872  the 
General  Assembly  elected  as  coordinate  Secretary 
the  Eev.  Kichard  Mcllwain,  D.  D.,  now  president 
of  Hampden-Sydney  College,  into  whose  hands 
principally  the  home  mission  department  fell,  and 
by  whose  wise,  popular,  and  energetic  administra- 
tion the  sustentation  and  evangelistic  work  was 
pushed  forward  throughout  our  Church,"  the  year 
previous  to  his  election,  the  Assembly  having  added 
the  evangelistic  arm  for  more  aggressive  work. 

In  18Y5,  the  offices  were  transferred  from  Co- 
lumbia, S.  C,  to  Baltimore,  Md.  In  1879,  the  name 
of  the  Committee  was  changed  to  "Home  Mis- 
sions, including  Sustentation,  Church  Erection,  and 
Evangelistic  Departments."  In  1882  the  offices  of 
home  and  foreign  missions  were  separated,  and 
Rev.  Richard  Mcllwain,  D.  D.,  became  Secretary 
of  home  missions.  In  1883  Dr.  Mcllwain  resigned 
to  accept  the  presidency  of  Hampden-Sydney  Col- 
lege, Virginia,  and  Rev.  J.  IST.  Craig,  D.  D.,  pastor 
of  Holly  Springs,  Miss.,  was  elected.  In  1886  the 
office  of  home  missions  was  transferred  to  At- 
lanta, Ga. 

The  administration  of  Dr.  Craig  lasted  seven- 
teen years,  and  was  characterized  by  great  fidelity 
to  the  cause  and  loyalty  to  the  Church ;  and  he 
literally  died  in  the  harness.     "  His  tragic  but  tri- 


Historical  37 

umphant  death  is  fresh  in  the  minds  of  the  mem- 
bers of  the  synod  of  Virginia.  He  had  just  fin- 
ished an  address  of  exceptional  ability  before  the 
synod  at  its  recent  meeting  in  Newport  News, 
when  his  spirit  fled  to  join  '  the  spirits  of  the  just 
men  made  perfect ' ;  and  his  body  was  left  on  the 
rostrum  majestic  in  death.  Not  till  our  dying 
day  will  we  forget  that  scene  where  time  and 
eternity  seemed  to  crowd  each  other,  and  heaven 
and  earth  were  but  an  inch  apart.  As  the  pros- 
trate form  of  the  venerable  Secretary  rested  upon 
the  rostrum  before  a  large  assembly  of  God's  serv- 
ants, sad  of  heart,  and  hushed  into  silence  in  the 
presence  of  death,  he  appeared  still  to  be  mutely 
appealing  for  a  more  hearty,  united,  and  harmoni- 
ous support  of  the  greatest  cause  of  the  Church. 
*  Though  dead,  he  yet  speaketh ' "  (Kev.  P.  H, 
Gwinn). 

This  was  October,  1900,  and  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee met  in  Atlanta  during  November,  and 
elected  Kev.  Dr.  T,  P.  Cleveland  to  serve  as  Secre- 
tary till  the  meeting  of  the  Assembly  at  Little 
Kock,  Ark.;  at  which  time,  feeling  the  grave  re- 
sponsibility of  selecting  a  successor,  the  Assembly 
appointed  a  special  hour  for  the  election  to  be  pre- 
ceded by  a  season  of  special  prayer  for  divine 
guidance.  The  choice  fell  on  Eev.  S.  L.  Morris, 
D.  D.,  pastor  of  Tattnall  Square  Church,  Macon, 
Ga.,  who,  by  reason  of  the  remarkable  circum- 
stances attending  the  election,  regarded  it  as  the 
call  of  God,  and  entered  upon  the  duties  of  office 
July  1,  1901. 


38  At  Our  Own  Door 

During  the  administration  of  Dr.  Craig  in  1893, 
the  Assembly  made  the  most  important  change  in 
the  plan  of  home  missions  in  all  its  history  by 
separating  it  into  Local  and  Assembly's  Home 
Missions.  Each  presbytery  was  expected  to  carry 
on  its  own  work  by  taking  collections  in  February, 
June,  and  August  for  this  purpose.  This  made  the 
Executive  Committee  of  home  missions  almost  ex- 
clusively an  aggressive  agency  of  the  Church  for 
evangelizing  "  the  regions  beyond."  The  Church 
was  directed  to  give  January  and  September  of- 
ferings for  this  object,  and  the  Committee  was 
"  instructed  ordinarily  to  apply  its  funds  to  the 
development  of  the  work  in  the  weaker  portions 
of  the  Church  which  lie  in  the  southern,  south- 
western, and  western  portions  of  our  territory,  in- 
cluding Indian  Territory,  New  Mexico,  Arizona, 
and  Southern  California"  (Minutes,  1893),  For 
ten  years  the  Committee  has  operated  under  these 
instructions,  doing  its  work  almost  exclusively  in 
Arkansas,  Florida,  Indian  Territory,  and  Texas. 

The  bane  of  home  mission  work  in  the 
Southern  Church  has  been  the  ceaseless  and  need- 
less changing  of  machinery  and  plans  of  opera- 
tion. Compared  with  the  Northern  Presbyterian 
Church,  which  has  made  only  one  change  in  the 
location  of  its  Board  in  a  hundred  years,  and 
scarcely  any  in  its  plan  of  operation,  steadily 
and  persistently  pursuing  its  clearly  defined  pur- 
pose onward  to  ever- widening  success,  the  Southern 
Church  has  carried  its  Committee  from  New 
Orleans  to  Athens,  Ga.,  to  Montgomery,  Ala.,  to 


Historical 


39 


Columbia,  S.  C,  to  Baltimore,  Md.,  and  to  Atlanta, 
Ga.,  and  listens  at  every  Assembly  to  some 
"  overture  "  for  changing  the  machinery. 

In  consequence  of  this  restlessness  of  the 
Church,  the  Assembly  at  Little  Rock,  Ark.,  in 
1901  appointed  an  Ad-Interim  Committee  to  find  if 
possible  some  better  plan  of  carrying  on  its  home 
mission  work.  After  studying  the  problem  for 
two  years,  this  committee  composed  of  one  repre- 
sentative from  each  synod  made  its  report  to  the 
Assembly  at  Lexington,  Va.,  1903.  The  Assembly 
in  adopting  it,  so  modified  the  report  as  to  make 
it  a  compromise  between  the  old  plan  operated  for 
twenty-seven  years  and  the  one  in  operation  for 
the  past  ten  years. 

The  new  plan  adopted  and  now  in  operation  is 
as  follows : 

"  1.  The  home  missionary  work  of  the  Church 
is  a  unit,  but  for  its  better  administration,  it  is 
divided  into  two  departments,  Local  and  General. 
"  2.  The  Assembly  urges  upon  all  its  synods  and 
presbyteries  to  prosecute  the  work  of  local  home 
missions  within  their  own  bounds  to  the  extent  of 
their  ability,  and  reserves  for  the  use  of  these  courts, 
the  months  of  February,  June,  and  August  to 
defray  the  expenses  of  their  local  work. 

"3.  The  Assembly's  home  mission  work  em- 
braces the  whole  Church  for  the  purpose  of  aiding 
the  weaker  presbyteries  and  frontier  districts  in 
the  various  synods,  but  more  especially  in  new 
territory  and  unorganized  sections  of  the  West. 
"  4.     The  Executive  Committee  shall  aid  within 


40  At  Our  Own  Door 

its  ability  the  work  in  any  presb3'^tery  where  it  is 
shown  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  Committee,  that 
said  presbytery  is  unable  to  compass  the  work ; 
and  in  all  cases  the  presbyteries  shall  secure  offer- 
ings for  this  cause  from  their  churches  during  the 
months  designated  for  this  purpose. 

"  5.  The  General  Assembly  appoints  two  annual 
collections  for  Assembly's  home  missions,  includ- 
ing the  causes  formerly  known  as  Sustentation, 
Evangelistic,  and  Church  Erection,  and  appoints 
the  months  of  January  and  September  for  the 
presentation  of  this  work,  and  urges  upon  all  its 
synods  and  presbyteries  to  endeavor  to  have  this 
department  of  the  work  presented  to  the 
churches  distinctly  upon  its  own  merits  and  to 
secure  liberal  collections  from  the  churches  in 
their  bounds"  (Minutes,  1903). 

At  first  glance  there  seems  but  little  difference 
between  this  and  the  plan  adopted  in  1893,  but  a 
careful  study  of  the  two  will  reveal  the  fact  that 
the  previous  plan  was  largely  local,  whilst  the  new 
plan  makes  the  Assembly's  home  missions  stand 
for  all  the  destitutions  of  the  Church,  the  prefer- 
ence being  given  to  the  weaker  presbyteries  and 
unorganized  sections  of  the  "West.  It  may  not  be 
perfect ;  possibly  nothing  could  be  devised  which 
would  give  satisfaction  to  all  sections  with  their 
conflicting  interests  and  diverse  methods  of  work ; 
but  the  success  of  the  work  will  not  depend  on  the 
perfection  of  the  machinery  so  much  as  on  the 
hearty  and  harmonious  cooperation  of  every 
presbytery,  and  the  aggressive  policy  and  wise 


Historical  41 

management  of  the  Committee  under  the  blessing 
of  God. 

Is  it  possible  to  place  the  matter  in  stronger 
light  than  has  been  done  by  Rev.  P.  H.  Gwinn  in 
his  able  and  timely  article,  "  Our  forty  years  in 
the  Home  Field,"  in  which  he  challenges  the 
loyalty  of  Presbyterianism  :  "  Has  the  Southern 
General  Assembly  become  a  corporation  that  her 
inferior  courts  should  be  found  in  a  state  of  insub- 
ordination ?  Certain  it  is  that  for  years  many  of 
the  inferior  ecclesiastical  bodies  have  rebelled 
against  the  Assembly's  scheme  of  home  missions. 
The  presbyteries  have  been  designated  as  '  co- 
operating '  and  '  non-cooperating.'  No  matter  what 
scheme  the  Assembly  adopted,  it  was  ignored  by 
certain  presbyteries  with  a  nonchalance  that  is 
simply  appalling.  This  has  gone  on  till  lax  ob- 
servance of  ecclesiastical  authority  has  become 
common,  and  threatens  to  seriously  disturb  the 
continuity  of  our  Church.  Perhaps  the  last  public 
utterance  of  the  venerable  Dr.  Dabney  was  to  lift 
his  voice  in  timely  warning  against  the  growth  of 
this  spirit.  No  cause  of  the  Church  has  suffered 
more  from  insubordination  of  church  courts  than 
home  missions.  The  wonder  is  that  so  much  has 
been  accomplished  with  such  a  guerilla  system. 

"  Now,  we  would  not  diminish  by  one  iota  the 
corporate  power  of  the  Church  ;  only  adjust  and 
apply  it  through  cooperation.  We  might  show  in 
various  ways  that  the  existence  of  a  corporation  is 
often  due  more  to  mechanical  device  than  to  or- 
ganic connection,  smothering  the  individual  life  of 


42  At  Our  Own  Door 

its  members.  On  the  other  hand,  the  element  of 
corporate  power  '  may  also  be  kept  so  much  in 
abeyance  as  to  lose  its  legitimate  force  and  give 
an  exaggerated  development  of  the  principle  of  in- 
dividualism, tending  to  schism,  contention,  and 
paralysis  of  the  corporate  action.'  The  effectual 
antidote  to  either  extreme  is  cooperation,  a  splendid 
mutualism  which  neither  suppresses  the  individual 
nor  creates  rebellion.  As  applied  to  a  religious 
body,  it  is  a  grand  brotherhood  of  believers,  moved 
by  the  love  of  Jesus  to  daily  warfare  with  sin,  and 
to  constant  and  united  effort  to  give  energy  and 
eflBlciency  to  every  enterprise  of  the  Church.  This 
is  a  body  whose  members  obey  the  spirit  of  Jesus, 
in  which  it  is  the  glory  of  the  strong  to  help  the 
weak,  and  where  regularly  constituted  authority 
finds  becoming  reverence  and  loyalty.  .  .  . 
One  needs  not  the  prophetic  vision  to  see  the  dis- 
astrous tendency  of  the  growing  independence  of 
synods,  presbyteries  and  sessions  of  our  Church. 
It  is  clear  that  some  way  must  be  found  to  check 
this  tendency  and  to  elicit,  combine  and  direct  the 
energies  of  the  whole  Church  in  one  sacred  effort 
for  the  propagation  of  the  Gospel  throughout  the 
destitute  regions  of  our  country.  If  the  General 
Assembly  possess  the  power  neither  to  persuade 
nor  to  compel  the  inferior  courts  to  regard  her 
mandates  in  matters  involving  such  momentous 
issues,  then  let  the  Church  surrender  her  boasted 
theory  of  a  '  Jure  divino  form  of  Government.'  " 

"  If  we  do  not  hang  together,"  said  Benjamin 
Franklin  in  the  American  Kevolution,  "  we  will 


Historical  43 

all  hang  separately."  If  the  presbyteries  do  not 
cooperate  together  under  the  leadership  and  con- 
trol of  the  Assembly,  the  cause  of  missions  will 
retrograde,  and  the  Church  disintegrate.  The 
Church  seems  to  be  awakened  to  its  dereliction  in 
the  past,  and  there  are  blessed  tokens  of  a  new 
spirit  of  fellowship  and  loyalty  on  all  sides.  It  is 
said  that  Edison  on  board  an  ocean  steamer,  gazing 
upon  the  waves  rolling  and  dashing  themselves 
into  spray,  in  their  wild,  restless  motion,  ex- 
claimed :  "  It  makes  me  perfectly  wild  to  see  all 
of  this  power  going  to  waste."  According  to  Dr. 
Strong :  "  The  sun's  heat  which  falls  on  the  sur- 
face of  Manhattan  Island  is  sufficient,  we  are  told, 
to  drive  all  the  steam  engines  of  the  world.  The 
force  of  atomic  motion  is  alike  irresistible  and  im- 
measurable. Our  present  knowledge  of  electricity 
assures  us  of  its  boundless  possibilities ;  and  Na- 
ture is  now  whispering  in  the  ear  of  Science  some 
of  her  secrets,  which  suggest  the  possibility  of 
giving  to  material  civilization,  within  a  few  years, 
an  impetus  greater  even  than  that  resulting  from 
the  application  of  steam."  In  like  manner  there 
is  latent  power  enough  in  the  Presbyterian  Church 
now  going  to  waste  to  propagate  its  faith  in  every 
nook  and  corner  of  our  great  Southland,  if  it  could 
be  properly  directed  and  utilized.  God  speed  the 
day  ! 

This  historical  sketch  of  the  growth  of  home 
Missions  cannot  be  more  fittingly  closed  than  by  a 
glance  at  results.  The  organic  life  of  the  Southern 
Church  began   with  ten  synods  and  forty-seven 


44  At  Our  Own  Door 

presbyteries,  containing  about  700  ministers,  1,000 
churches,  and  75,000  communicants,  increased  by 
the  addition  after  the  war  of  the  Synods  of  Missouri 
and  Kentucky,  and  the  erection  of  the  Synod  of 
Florida.  It  now  numbers,  after  the  lapse  of  forty 
years,  thirteen  synods,  eighty-two  presbyteries, 
1,517  ministers,  3,044  churches,  and  235,142  com- 
municants. Presbyteries  and  ministers  have  in- 
creased about  one  hundred  per  cent.;  whilst 
churches  and  communicants  have  increased  two 
hundred  per  cent.  It  was  not  until  1870  that  the 
Southern  Church  was  in  a  position  to  enter  upon 
aggressive  home  missions,  so  that  its  real  progress 
ought  to  be  estimated  for  only  thirty  years.  The 
white  population  of  our  mission  field  (Arkansas, 
Florida,  Texas,  and  Indian  Territory)  has  increased 
in  thirty  years  240  per  cent.,  whilst  our  church  mem- 
bership in  that  section  has  increased  410  per  cent. 

In  these  thirty  years  the  Committee  of  home 
missions  has  aided  in  erection  of  about  eight 
hundred  churches  at  a  cost  of  about  $100,000,  mak- 
ing the  property  worth  about  $1,000,000,  and  pro- 
viding 15,000  persons  with  church  homes. 

At  least  2,000  Indian  youth  have  been  educated 
in  our  mission  schools,  including  the  majority  of 
our  Indian  preachers,  and  about  2,400  Indians  have 
been  received  into  communion  in  the  church.  Five 
missionaries  are  maintained  among  the  Mexicans  in 
Texas,  and  thirteen  Mexican  churches  have  been  or- 
ganized among  them  having  a  membership  at  pres- 
ent of  680,  and  church  buildings  erected,  valued  at 
present  at  $7,500. 


Historical  45 

About  250  home  missionaries  have  been  supported 
annually,  supplying  on  an  average  about  600 
churches  and  preaching  to  more  than  100,000  people 
year  by  year. 

The  sum  total  of  funds  raised  by  the  Southern 
Church  and  expended  in  home  mission  work  is 
estimated  at  nearly  $4,000,000.  Twenty-three 
millions  raised  by  the  Northern  Presbyterian 
Church  in  a  century  of  Missions  and  nearly  four 
millions  raised  by  her  younger  sister  in  less  than  a 
half  century,  is  not  a  bad  showing  for  either  church. 

"  But  figures  are  dumb.  Statistics  are  cold,  de- 
ceptive things,  when  used  to  compete  the  growth 
of  an  invisible  kingdom.  '  Numericals  do  not  voice 
the  strong  things  of  religion.'  The  sum  total  of 
S3'^mpathy,  self-denial  and  sacrifice  cannot  be  found. 
There  is  no  way  to  compute  the  unspeakable  joy 
brought  to  thousands  of  homes,  through  the  min- 
istry of  the  word ;  no  way  to  measure  the  growth 
of  a  community  in  moral  excellence  ;  no  symbols 
to  express  the  length  and  breadth  and  height  of 
faith,  mercy,  love.  Undoubtedly  the  grandest  re- 
sults of  our  home  mission  work  has  been  the  crea- 
tion of  a  current  of  beneficent  influence,  like  the 
Gulf  Stream,  deep,  strong,  immeasurable,  which 
will  increase  in  volume  till  it  sweeps  upon  the 
shore  of  Eternity  "  (Rev.  P.  H.  Gwinn). 

Now,  we  face  the  future,  dim,  unknown,  great 
with  possibilities.  The  achievements  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  in  science,  statecraft,  missions, 
scarcely  allow  the  most  vivid  imagination  to  hazard 
a  guess  in  outlining  the  horizon  of  the  new  century. 


46  At  Our  Own  Door 

No  wonder  Dr.  C.  L.  Thompson,  the  eloquent  Sec- 
retary of  home  missions  of  the  Northern  Church, 
with  delicate  skill  touches  but  the  outer  garment 
of  the  future  in  the  fascinating  vision  : 

"  Years  ago  I  had  a  vision  from  the  summit  of 
Pike's  Peak.  Through  the  lifting  gates  of  the 
morning  mist  the  landscape  to  the  east  lay  re- 
vealed and  splendid ;  town,  villages,  farms,  plains 
stretching  to  the  eastern  horizon — startlingly 
distinct  in  the  dry,  morning  air.  It  was  a  vision 
of  civilization.  Then  turning  about  to  the  west, 
the  mountains  rose  in  frozen  billows  to  the  skies. 
The  snowy  ridges  suggested  valleys  that  could 
not  be  seen.  The  vision  ended  in  a  teasing  haze, 
through  which  to  the  south  the  Spanish  peaks 
towered  distantly,  dim  and  concealing.  It  was  a 
vision  of  the  unknown.  It  comes  back  to  me  to- 
day. We  stand  upon  the  ridge  of  the  century. 
Behind  us  distinct  and  splendid  a  hundred  years 
of  home  missions  unroll  to  the  horizon.  Before 
us,  vistas  of  opportunity  sentineled  and  concealed 
by  great  events,  whose  white  foreheads  rise  to- 
wards heaven,  as  if  owning  allegiance  to  Him 
who  shapes  the  future." 

Presbyterianism  began  the  last  century  in  this 
country  a  little  band,  and  now  "  by  the  good  hand 
of  our  God  upon  us  "  it  stands  upon  the  threshold 
of  the  twentieth  century  in  its  aggregate  strength 
in  the  United  States  of  twelve  denominations, 
12,000  ministers,  15,000  churches  and  2,000,000 
communicants,  with  its  missions  stretching  around 
the  globe. 


Historical  47 

Let  not  hers  be  the  spirit  of  Laodicea,  "  I  am 
rich  and  increased  with  goods  and  have  need  of 
nothing ; "  but  rather  that  of  the  chiefest  of  the 
Apostles,  "  I  count  not  myself  to  have  ap- 
prehended, but  this  one  thing  I  do,  forgetting 
those  things  which  are  behind,  and  reaching  forth 
unto  those  things  which  are  before,  I  press  to- 
wards the  mark  " — "  attempting  greater  things 
for  God  and  expecting  greater  things  from  God." 


II 

THE  PROGRAM  OF  MISSIONS 

The  blood  stained  Cross  was  possibly  still 
standing  on  the  brow  of  Calvary,  overlooking  the 
City  of  Jerusalem,  but  the  Kesurrection  was  now 
a  glorious  fact.  The  risen  Christ,  Lord  and  Head 
of  the  Church,  stood  on  the  summit  of  Olivet, 
with  the  eleven  disciples.  On  the  eve  of  the 
Ascension,  Jesus  speaks  His  very  last  recorded 
words  to  the  Church :  "  And  ye  shall  be  witnesses 
unto  Me,  both  in  Jerusalem,  and  in  all  Judea,  and 
in  Samaria,  and  unto  the  uttermost  part  of  the 
earth."  Having  already  given  His  "Marching 
Orders"  to  the  Church,  "Go  ye  into  all  the 
world  and  preach  the  Gospel  to  every  creature," 
the  Captain  of  the  Eedeemed  Host  now  prescribes 
very  definitely  the  order  of  the  March  in  His  last 
words  to  the  Church. 

1.  In  these  words  we  have  Christ's  own  pro- 
gram of  missions;  "And  ye  shall  be  witnesses 
unto  Me  both  in  Jerusalem  " — city  missions ;  "  and 
in  all  Judea  " — local  home  missions  ;  "  and  in 
Samaria" — General  Assembly's  missions;  "and 
unto  the  uttermost  part  of  the  earth" — foreign 
missions.  According  to  the  orders  of  Christ,  the 
Church  is  not  to  begin  at  the  circumference  and 
work    towards    the  centre,   but   "  Beginning  at 

48 


The  Program  of  Missions  49 

Jerusalem,"  the  centre,  she  is  to  work  towards  the 
circumference  till  the  Gospel  is  "  preached  among 
all  nations."  Just  as  a  stone  dropped  into  a 
placid  lake  starts  ripples,  moving  outward  in  ever 
widening  concentric  circles,  so  the  Church,  start- 
ing at  any  home  centre  must  travel  to  the  out- 
most circumference. 

The  Church  may  assume  any  one  of  four 
attitudes  towards  missions : 

{a)  All  the  emphasis  may  be  placed  on  foreign 
missions,  as  has  been  the  policy  of  the  Moravian 
Church.  A  bishop  of  that  grand,  missionary 
Church,  travelling  recently  on  the  train  with  a 
Baptist  minister,  admitted  that  it  had  been  the 
great  mistake  of  his  church.  As  a  consequence, 
it  has  transferred  itself  to  foreign  fields  and  com- 
paratively lost  its  grip  at  home,  a  tremendous 
factor  in  the  world's  evangelization  abroad,  but 
an  unimportant  element  in  the  great  struggle  of 
spiritual  forces  for  the  conquest  of  this  land  for 
Christ.  Q>)  It  may  array  itself  against  missions, 
as  has  been  done  by  the  Primitive  Baptist  Church ; 
and  as  a  consequence,  although  containing  many 
most  excellent  Christian  people,  it  is  shrivelling 
into  smaller  proportions  and  retiring  to  mountain 
regions  and  backwoods  settlements,  (c)  The 
emphasis  may  be  placed  largely  on  home  missions, 
as  in  the  case  of  the  Methodist  Church.  As  a 
consequence,  it  leads  all  denominations  in  its 
growth  and  aggressive  work  in  the  home  field. 
{d)  The  emphasis  may  be  placed  on  home  and 
foreign    missions    alike,   as    in  the  case  of   the 


^o  At  Our  Own  Door 

Northern  Presbyterian  Church.  As  a  con- 
sequence, it  is  a  great  spiritual  force  in  the  great 
West  and  throughout  the  entire  world. 

There  is  never  any  conflict  between  home  and 
foreign  missions,  where  they  are  each  assigned 
their  proper  proportions.  Each  is  a  stimulus  to  the 
other.  The  work  of  local  home  missions  is  to 
'  strengthen  thy  stakes  " ;  the  purpose  of  the  As- 
sembly's missions  makes  it  the  aggressive  work  of 
the  Church  to  "  lengthen  thy  cords  " ;  whilst  the 
sphere  of  foreign  missions  stretches  "unto  the 
uttermost  parts  of  the  earth."  Increase  the  home 
mission  resources,  and  the  larger  will  be  the  income 
for  foreign  missions.  This  is  following  Christ's 
program  for  missions  in  Christ's  own  order  of  the 
march. 

2.  The  scope  of  home  missions,  as  operated  by 
the  General  Assembly  through  its  Executive  Com- 
mittee at  Atlanta,  embraces  four  departments : 

{a)  First,  in  every  sense  of  the  word,  is  the  Evan- 
gelistic sphere.  The  evangelist  is  a  pioneer  who 
blazes  the  way  for  the  future  path  of  the 
Church,  in  her  onward  march.  The  evangelist  is  the 
advance  guard  that  reconnoitres  for  the  army,  that 
"  goes  forth  conquering  and  to  conquer "  in  the 
name  of  Christ.  The  evangelist  sows  the  precious 
seed  of  divine  truth,  that  others  may  reap  the 
harvest  in  accordance  with  the  saying  of  Christ : 
"  Other  men  labored,  and  ye  are  entered  into  their 
labors."  The  evangelist  lays  the  foundation  that 
others  may  rear  the  superstructure  in  accord  with 
the    principle    announced  by  the  chiefest  of  all 


The  Program  of  Missions  ^i 

evangelists :  "  According  to  the  grace  of  God, 
which  is  given  unto  me,  as  a  wise  master-builder, 
I  have  laid  the  foundation,  and  another  buildeth 
thereon." 

There  can  be  no  real  aggressive  work  without 
the  aid  of  the  evangelist.  This  department  of  the 
work  includes,  not  only  the  evangelists  of  our  fron- 
tier presbyteries,  but  our  operations  among  the 
Mexicans  of  western  Texas.  As  they  come  across 
the  Eio  Grande,  in  numbers  100,000  strong,  we  meet 
them  with  the  Gospel  in  a  line  of  out-posts  along 
our  border.  One  of  these  evangelists,  Kev.  "W.  S. 
Scott,  preaching  in  an  unknown  tongue,  has  for 
several  years  received  on  an  average  100  of  these 
Mexicans  annually  into  the  Presbyterian  Church. 
Can  any  man,  even  with  better  opportunities,  ex- 
hibit a  grander  record  ?  Is  not  this  the  manifest 
approval  of  the  Master  ?  In  addition  to  this,  we 
have  our  missionaries  among  the  Indians,  and  our 
evangelists  in  the  new  territory  opening  up  "  in  the 
regions  beyond  "  the  pale  of  the  church,  and  ad- 
vancing into  Oklahoma. 

(h)  Following  closely  upon  the  heels  of  the  evan- 
gelists, comes  the  settled  pastor,  bringing  us  into 
the  sphere  of  Sustentation.  As  fast  as  new  churches 
are  organized,  it  is  our  plan  to  group  them  and 
place  over  them  the  under  shepherd.  No  men  are 
ever  called  to  any  greater  task,  requiring  them  to 
"  endure  hardness  as  good  soldiers  of  Christ,"  than 
these  hard  worked,  poorly  paid,  self-sacrificing 
home  missionaries  of  the  Church.  Only  the  small- 
est percentage  of  the  Church  knows  anything  of 


52  At  Our  Own  Door 

the  privations,  difllculties,  discouragementSj  etc.,  of 
these  noble  men,  called  to  nurse  infant  churches  in 
the  midst  of  adverse  circumstances.  Many  of  them 
would  succumb  but  for  the  comforting  thought, 
God  hnows  y  and  so  they  "  endure  as  seeing  Him 
who  is  invisible." 

These  two  departments  of  home  missions  may  be 
illustrated  from  the  analogy  of  nature.  In  nature 
God  has  two  methods  of  propagating  a  forest. 
One  is  by  wind-wafted  seed,  scattered  by  the 
breezes  of  heaven  ;  some  falling  upon  the  rocks  to 
die,  some  choked  in  preoccupied  ground,  and  others 
falling  into  good  and  fertile  soil  to  produce  rich 
harvests.  In  the  Kingdom  of  Grace  this  corre- 
sponds to  the  evangelistic  principle,  by  which  the 
precious  seed  of  divine  truth  is  scattered  beside  all 
waters.  "  In  the  morning  sow  thy  seed,  and  in  the 
evening  withhold  not  thy  hand."  God  has  another 
method  still  of  propagating  a  forest.  The  banyan 
tree  stretches  out  a  branch,  and  then  drops  to  the 
earth  a  tender  shoot  to  take  fresh  hold  on  the  soil. 
The  mother  plant  does  not  leave  this  offspring  to 
shift  for  itself,  and  live  or  die,  as  it  may  chance. 
The  organic  life  of  parent  and  offspring  is  one. 
They  share  a  common  life.  The  parent  maintains 
the  feeble  shoot  until  it  grows  strong,  and  then 
uses  it  to  stretch  out  its  branches  still  farther,  and 
again  take  hold  on  the  soil,  and  thus  a  forest 
spreads.  In  the  Kingdom  of  Grace  this  corre- 
sponds to  the  sustentation  principle,  by  which  the 
church  nourishes  its  offspring  till  the  weak  church 
becomes  self-supporting,  and  in  turn  nourishes  other 


The  Program  of  Missions  53 

churches.  By  the  evangelistic  principle  she 
"  lengthens  her  cords  " ;  by  the  sustentation  depart- 
ment she  "  strengthens  her  stakes." 

(c)  The  very  first  thing  the  pastor  is  called  upon 
to  meet  is  the  problem  of  a  new  church ;  and  this 
brings  us  into  the  department  of  Church  Erection. 
In  the  very  first  conception  of  a  church  building  is 
the  inquiry  always  raised,  "  Can  we  secure  any  as- 
sistance ?  "  In  almost  every  instance  the  pastor 
stimulates  them  to  the  herculean  task  by  the  sug- 
gestion of  a  donation  from  the  Assembly's  Com- 
mittee. So  the  applications  for  help  pour  in  and 
confront  every  meeting  of  the  Committee.  Yet 
such  a  small  per  cent,  of  our  funds  can  be  given  to 
this  object,  that  we  are  compelled  to  select  a  few  of 
the  neediest  or  most  importunate,  and  decline  all 
others  ;  and  it  is  most  diflficult  to  convince  those 
refused  that  theirs  are  not  the  neediest  cases  of  all. 
This  is  very  discouraging  to  the  churches  and  very 
embarrassing  to  the  Committee.  It  is  unfortunate 
that  the  church  does  not  realize,  that  when  any  ap- 
plication is  denied,  it  is  not  the  Committee  in  At- 
lanta, but  the  Presbyterian  Church  that  declines, 
by  withholding  the  funds ;  for  "  we  cannot  make 
brick  without  straw." 

{d)  The  last  department  of  home  missions  is 
perhaps  the  most  profitable  of  all,  in  proportion  to 
the  money  expended ;  for  "  Mission  Schools  "  of 
the  Indian  Territory  cost  only  about  three  per 
cent,  of  the  funds  raised  annually.  Contrary  to 
public  opinion,  let  it  be  understood,  that  the 
Indian  children  are  not  the  neediest  cases,  for  they 


54  At  Our  Own  Door 

receive  some  help  from  the  government ;  but  the 
Commissioner  of  Indian  affairs  recently  reported 
to  the  Department  of  the  Interior,  that  the  Terri- 
tory contains  119,000  white  school  children,  for 
whose  education  there  is  not  the  slightest  provision 
whatever.  To  reach  even  a  percentage  of  these 
our  "  Mission  Schools  "  have  increased  to  about  a 
dozen.  Recognizing  that  secular  education  with- 
out religious  training  is  often  a  delusion  and  a 
curse,  we  are  not  only  teaching  the  secular 
branches  of  the  common  school  system,  but  mak- 
ing the  Shorter  Catechism  one  of  the  text-books ; 
and  if  the  Shorter  Catechism  be  the  seed  sown, 
"  What  shall  the  harvest  be  ?  " 

Time  and  space  forbid  at  this  point  any  account 
of  these  schools.  Durant  College  has  grown  out 
of  one,  which  now  has  a  $15,000  pressed  brick 
building,  seven  teachers  and  over  300  scholars. 
At  its  first  opening  pupils  came  from  every  nook 
and  corner  of  the  Indian  Territory,  every  seat  and 
desk  being  taken  within  two  weeks ;  and  there  are 
always  those  in  waiting  for  the  first  vacancy. 
The  government  sends  us  100  of  its  wards,  paying 
their  board  and  tuition.  Who  can  estimate  the 
sphere  of  its  influence,  as  these  young  minds  are 
being  trained  to  go  out  into  every  section  of  this 
great  future  state,  and  become  the  leaders  of 
thought  and  builders  of  the  Republic !  Long  may 
this  "  River  "  send  out  its  streams  to  "  make  glad 
the  city  of  God." 

3.  As  to  the  relation  of  home  missions  to  the 
other  Schemes  of  the  Church,  if  space  permitted, 


The  Program  of  Missions  5^ 

it  would  be  an  easy  task  to  show  that  our  home 
mission  work  is  the  basis  of  all  other  operations ; 
and  to  develop  it  is  to  equip  the  Church  more  fully 
for  every  phase  of  her  work. 

(a)  No  more  serious  problem  confronts  the 
Church  than  the  decrease  in  her  candidates  for  the 
ministry.  Many  explanations  are  attempted.  Is 
not  this  one  potent  cause,  at  least?  Candidates 
for  the  ministry  come  from  small  towns  and  coun- 
try churches,  and  very  seldom  from  the  cities.  If 
the  Church  had  pushed  her  home  mission  work  into 
more  of  the  small  towns  and  country  places, 
would  not  these  have  more  than  repaid  the  ex- 
penditure of  money,  by  furnishing  the  candidates 
she  so  sorely  needs  to-day,  to  fill  the  pulpits  left 
vacant,  as  new  places  open  up,  and  one  by  one  the 
fathers  fall  asleep  ? 

(b)  Home  missions,  beyond  all  question,  is  the 
basis  of  foreign  missions.  If  an  army  is  to  ad- 
vance into  the  country  of  the  enemy,  it  needs  a 
strong  base  of  supply  to  sustain  its  operation.  If 
the  Church  had  been  spreading  itself  more  sys- 
tematically at  home,  it  would  be  supporting  a  far 
larger  number  on  the  foreign  field.  The  Church 
has  lost  rich,  valuable  territory  enough  in  the  west 
to  support  a  dozen  men  in  China  or  Japan.  Texas 
gives  as  much  to  foreign  missions  to-day  as  she 
draws  from  the  home  treasury.  Money  must  be 
spent  in  the  home  field  as  a  basis  of  operation  for 
the  foreign. 

"  The  immediate  and  continuous  need  of  foreign 
missions  is  a  base  of  supply,  both  of  money  and  of 


56  At  Our  Own  Door 

men.  That  base  has  not  yet  been  found  on  its  own 
missionary  ground,  although  self-support  in  foreign 
missions  is  beginning  to  be  tentatively  discussed. 
But  for  sometime  to  come,  as  in  the  ninety  years 
past,  that  all  important  base  must  be  found  in 
America,  and  among  the  churches  planted  and  yet 
to  be  planted  by  home  missions.  Dry  up  this 
source  of  supply  for  a  single  year,  and  missions  in 
Africa,  China,  India,  Turkey,  and  the  Islands  will 
droop  like  willows  cut  off  from  their  water 
courses.  And  what  is  true  of  money  is  equally 
true  of  men.  Native  pastors  have  been  raised  up 
in  considerable  numbers,  but  the  need  of  American 
trained  missionaries  continues  and  increases. 
Already  twenty-five  per  cent,  of  our  foreign  mis- 
sionaries have  been  drawn  from  home  missionary 
soil.  .  .  .  Certain  forms  of  speech,  which  are 
found  convenient  and  even  necessary  to  distin- 
guish their  operations,  have  sometimes  obscured 
this  truth.  It  is  well  to  remind  ourselves  that  in 
the  last  command  of  Christ  there  was  no  '  home,' 
there  was  no  ' foreign ' ;  'all  the  world '  was 
the  field :  and  the  Christian  who  believes  in  home 
missions  but  not  in  the  foreign  is  as  far  from  the 
mind  of  Christ,  as  he  who  believes  in  foreign  mis- 
sions and  not  in  home.  The  two  are  one,  and  as 
seamless  as  the  Master's  robe. 

"  Broad  minded  men  have  emphasized  this  truth  in 
many  striking  utterances.  It  was  this  interdepend- 
ence of  home  and  foreign  missions  that  moved 
Austin  Phelps  to  exclaim  in  that  intense  style  so 
peculiarly  his  own :    '  If  I  were  a  missionary  in 


The  Program  of  Missions  57 

Canton,  China,  my  first  prayer  every  morning 
would  be  for  the  success  of  American  home  mis- 
sions, for  the  sake  of  Canton,  China.'  It  was 
this  that  led  Dr.  R.  S.  Storrs  more  than  twenty 
years  ago,  to  write  from  Florence,  Italy :  '  The 
future  of  the  world  is  pivoted  on  the  question 
whether  the  Protestant  churches  of  America 
can  hold,  enlighten,  purify,  the  peoples  born  or 
gathered  into  its  great  compass.'  Marcus  "Whit- 
man Montgomery,  an  intense  home  missionary 
worker,  gave  expression  to  the  same  sentiment 
at  Saratoga  ten  years  ago :  '  The  United  States 
of  to-day  is  the  mountain  top  of  the  hopes  of 
many  nations ' "  (Leavening  the  JSTation). 

In  seeking  to  arouse  the  church  to  the  necessity 
of  occupying  this  land  for  Christ  by  pushing  home 
missions  after  the  example  of  our  Methodist  and 
Baptist  brethren,  we  have  excused  ourselves  by 
saying,  "  Ah !  but  we  are  a  foreign  mission  church. 
See  how  much  more  we  are  doing  in  proportion 
on  that  line."  In  the  meanwhile,  these  denomina- 
tions have  been  actively  spreading  themselves  in 
this  country  and  hedging  us  in  at  home,  until  the 
time  is  not  far  distant  when  they  will  sweep  by  us 
in  their  foreign  mission  work  from  sheer  force  of 
numbers.  One  hundred  members,  giving  twenty- 
five  cents  apiece  to  foreign  missions,  will  count 
more  in  the  aggregate  than  ten  giving  a  dollar 
each.  The  great  disparity  between  home  and 
foreign  missions  in  our  Church  is  not  to  be  reme- 
died by  relaxing  our  foreign  mission  zeal,  in  order 
to  retrieve  our  lost  territory  at  home.    Perish  the 


58  At  Our  Own  Door 

thought !  On  the  contrary,  lifting  our  standard 
of  foreign  mission  efforts  ever  higher,  at  the  same 
time  let  the  Church  emphasize  her  home  mission 
work,  as  equally  important,  and  by  strengthening 
her  stakes  at  home,  she  will  be  more  able  to 
lengthen  her  cords  abroad.  Money  spent  on  home 
missions  to-day  will  yield  abundant  fruit  for  for- 
eign missions  in  the  future. 

4.  The  costliest  mistake  of  the  Southern  Pres- 
byterian Church  has  been  the  neglect  of  its  home 
mission  work.  An  empire  has  been  lost  in  the 
West.  In  some  sections  weak  churches  have  been 
allowed  to  die,  and  the  fields  abandoned.  In  other 
cases  the  effort  was  never  made  until  the  tide  had 
ebbed  and  gone  out  forever. 

"There  is  a  tide  in  the  affairs  of  men  (and 
churches)  which  taken  at  its  flood  leads  on  to  for- 
tune, but  omitted ! " 

It  may  not  be  possible  to  recover  all  of  the 
ground  that  has  been  lost,  but  "  there  remaineth 
very  much  land  yet  to  be  possessed  " ;  and  our  ob- 
ject now  is  to  arouse  the  Church  to  her  opportu- 
nity and  responsibility  in  this  great  and  aggressive 
work. 

Upon  entering  the  work,  the  present  Secretary 
first  faithfully  informed  the  Church  of  its  lost 
empire  in  the  West,  and  then  turning  his  face  to- 
wards a  hopeful  future,  began  to  sound  the  call 
to  advance,  in  what  he  termed  "  A  Forward  Move- 
ment," even  in  the  face  of  the  debt  left  as  a  legacy 
of  the  former  administration.  Backing  up  his 
call  such  churches  as  Memphis  First,  Sherman 


The  Program  of  Missions  59 

First,  Knoxville  Third,  Athens,  Ga.,  Central  and 
North  Avenue  Atlanta,  and  some  generous  friends, 
came  forward  and  offered  to  support  each  an  in- 
dividual missionary.  May  their  generation  in- 
crease !  Encouraged  by  these  the  Committee  sent 
an  evangelist  to  Oklahoma  and  occupied  new 
towns  in  the  Indian  Territory.  Then  came  pro- 
tests from  certain  quarters  against  any  "  forward 
movement,"  and  in  favor  of  simply  "  holding  our 
own,"  and  giving  better  support  to  places  already 
occupied.  To  which  the  reply  was :  "  Whenever 
the  Presbyterian  Church  shall  fold  its  arms  and 
call  a  halt,  it  will  dry  up  the  fountains  of  its  lib- 
erality and  sound  its  own  death  knell ;  while  on 
the  contrary,  the  best  method  of  supporting  the 
work  already  in  hand  is  to  convince  the  Church 
that  an  aggressive  movement  is  being  undertaken, 
which  means  progress." 

Now  what  are  the  results  ?  Rev.  H.  S.  David- 
son, after  laboring  only  a  few  months  in  Oklahoma 
as  an  evangelist,  gathered  in  Mangum,  Greer 
County,  about  twenty  Presbyterians,  and  organized 
the  First  Presbyterian  Church  in  all  the  southern 
section  of  that  great  country.  Rev.  W.  E.  Mcllwain 
entered  upon  his  work  in  September  as  superin- 
tendent of  the  Indian  Territory  and  evangelist, 
where  in  seven  months  besides  holding  meetings 
in  various  places  he  settled  pastors  over  seven 
churches  and  organized  six  others.  His  successor, 
Rev.  W.  T.  Matthews,  is  meeting  with  great  suc- 
cess in  every  quarter.  The  opportunity  challenges 
the  Church  I 


6o  At  Our  Own  Door 

As  the  result  of  this  "  Forward  Movement,"  a 
petition  was  sent  to  the  next  meeting  of  the  Synod 
of  Texas  for  the  erection  of  a  new  presbytery  in 
the  Indian  Territory,  called  "  The  Presbytery  of 
Durant,"  which  petition  being  granted,  the  pres- 
bytery met  and  organized  with  eight  ministers 
and  twenty  churches.  It  is  remarkable  that  of 
these  eight  ministers,  every  one  had  entered  the 
Territory  during  the  previous  twelve  months,  and 
of  the  churches  more  than  half  had  been  organized 
in  the  same  period  of  time.  Can  any  section  of 
the  Church  show  better  results  for  the  means  ex- 
pended ?  Does  the  Church  ever  receive  better  re- 
sults from  the  funds  expended  than  in  aggressive 
home  mission  work  ? 

5.  In  carrying  out  the  program  of  missions  the 
Assembly's  work  does  not  ask  for  itself  the  whole 
resources  of  the  Church  but  a  wise  cooperation  of 
the  whole  Church,  and  a  profitable  adjustment  of 
funds.  In  every  presbytery  and  synod  there  is 
doubtless  enough  destitution  to  demand  all  of  its 
home  mission  funds  in  local  work.  "  'Tis  true,  'tis 
pity ;  pity  'tis,  'tis  true." 

Each  presbytery  and  synod  must  supply  its  own 
waste  places,  and  go  to  these  neglected  moun- 
taineers and  unevangelized  suburbs  of  the  city  for 
humanity's  sake  and  for  Christ's  sake. 

Yet  if  there  are  other  localities  still  more  desti- 
tute beyond  their  bounds,  where  the  population  is 
greater  and  the  money  expended  brings  in  better 
returns,  then  must  synod  or  presbytery  leave  the 
destitute  of  their  own  bounds /o/*  humanity^ s  sake 


The  Program  of  Missions  6l 

cmd  for  Christ^s  sakcy  until  the  Church  lays  its 
hands  on  the  more  needy  and  more  promising 
fields.  Every  man  making  an  investment  of  cap- 
ital wants  to  place  it  where  it  will  bring  him  the 
largest  returns.  If  the  aggressive  work  of  the 
General  Assembly  is  doing  more,  relatively  for 
the  spread  of  our  beloved  Church,  let  no  local  nor 
selfish  motive  hinder  us  from  giving  it  our  largest 
support.  Localities  in  the  older  synods  have 
waited,  can  still  wait,  will  wait,  Tnust  wait,  till  the 
Church  lays  her  hand  on  the  inviting  field  and 
destitute  sections  that  have  never  yet  been  occu- 
pied and  possessed  by  any  denomination. 

The  Church  must  give  the  gospel  to  these 
great  centres  of  population  in  the  west  for  her 
own  sake.  The  tide  of  population  rolling  west- 
wards is  filling  all  of  that  section  rapidly.  All  the 
public  lands  are  now  being  thrown  open.  There  is 
no  new  territory  to  be  opened.  The  wave  of 
population  will  soon  reach  the  Pacific  Ocean,  and 
then  necessarily  roll  backwards  towards  the  east, 
and  flow  into  our  own  wonderful  Southland. 
Woe  be  to  the  Church  if  it  rolls  back  on  her  a 
flood  of  ungodly  men  and  women !  The  battle 
ground  of  this  country  is  the  west.  Whoever 
organizes  the  west — Christ  or  Satan — will  largely 
control  the  United  States.  The  east  must  evan- 
gelize the  west,  or  else  the  west  will  paganize  the 
east.  It  will  cost  the  Church  less  to  evangelize 
the  west  now  than  in  the  future,  and  she  must  do 
it  for  Chrisfs  sake  and  for  her  own  sake. 

In    pursuing    her    foreign    mission  work,   the 


62  At  Our  Own  Door 

Church  is  obeying  the  "Marching  Orders"  of 
Christ,  in  fidelity  and  loyalty  to  Him.  Is  she 
observing  "  The  Order  of  the  March  "  in  aggressive 
home  mission  work,  according  to  Christ's  own 
program  of  missions  ? 


Ill 

CITY  MISSIONS 

One  of  the  most  pathetic  incidents  in  the  life  of 
Christ  occurred  during  the  only  triumphal  proces- 
sion accorded  Him  on  earth.  Some  were  waving 
palm  branches  and  paving  His  path  to  Jerusalem 
with  their  garments ;  others  were  shouting  "  Ho- 
sannas,"  and  singing  "  Glory  to  God  in  the  high- 
est " ;  the  whole  city  was  moved  at  the  demon- 
stration, intended  as  an  ovation  to  the  possible 
future  King.  In  the  midst  of  the  jubilee,  it  is 
said,  "  And  when  He  was  come  near.  He  beheld 
the  city  and  wept  over  it."  If  tears  could  be  shed 
in  heaven,  possibly  nothing  of  earth  would  sooner 
provoke  those  tears  to-day  than  the  city  in  its 
degradation,  distresses,  destitution,  sorrow  and 
sin.  It  is  in  the  city  that  human  nature  sinks  to 
its  lowest  level.  If  there  is  a  hell  on  earth,  it  is 
the  city,  sometimes  called  "  The  scab  on  the  body 
of  humanity,"  and  designated  by  Dr.  A.  J.  McKel- 
way  as  "  the  plague  spot  of  Nature."  After  ex- 
ploring the  wilds  of  Africa,  Henry  M.  Stanley 
sought  to  fire  the  hearts  of  mankind  by  writing 
"  In  Darkest  Africa,"  but  General  Booth  paralleled 
it  in  "  Darkest  England."  The  darker  side  of  the 
dark  continent  is  not  more  repulsive  than  the 
darker  side  of  London,  Paris,  New  York  or  Chi- 

63 


64  At  Our  Own  Door 

cago,  and  many  lesser  cities.  In  the  spirit  of 
Christ,  philanthropists  are  still  weeping  over  the 
needs,  sufferings  and  sorrows  of  the  cities ;  philoso- 
phers are  weeping  over  city  problems ;  Christians 
are  weeping  over  the  wretchedness,  shame  and  sin 
of  the  city. 

There  is  always  sorrow  in  the  city.  Advancing 
civilization,  progress  of  science,  institutions  of 
learning,  have  not  banished  from  the  city  its 
woes,  nor  diminished  its  shame.  "  The  Twentieth 
Century  City  "  shows  but  little  change  in  condi- 
tions, since  the  Psalmist  testified  3,000  years  ago : 
"  I  have  seen  violence  and  strife  in  the  city.  Day 
and  night  they  go  about  it  upon  the  walls  thereof : 
mischief  also  and  sorrow  are  in  the  midst  of  it. 
Wickedness  is  in  the  midst  thereof:  deceit  and 
guile  depart  not  from  her  streets.'*  Here  extremes 
meet ; "  Dives  and  Lazarus  are  brought  face  to  face : " 
"the  rich  and  the  poor  meet  together,"  and  ap- 
peal equally  to  the  compassion  of  "  The  Lord  the 
Maker  of  both."  The  wretched  tenement  house 
and  the  squalid  hut  contain  no  monopoly  of  suffer- 
ing. The  brown-stone  front,  and  brilliantly  il- 
lumined palace  have  each  its  hidden  skeleton. 

1.  It  has  been  said,  "The  city  is  the  nerve 
centre  of  our  civilization.  It  is  also  the  storm 
centre."  Population  is  becoming  more  and  more 
congested  in  the  city,  rendering  it  not  simply  a 
menace  to  good  government,  but  a  greater  problem 
to  the  Church.  A  comparative  study  of  statistics 
shows  that  the  growth  of  the  city  is  abnormal. 
At  the  dawn  of  the  nineteenth  century,  only  one- 


City  Missions  65 

twenty-fifth  of  the  population  of  our  country  be- 
longed to  the  city  ;  by  the  middle  of  the  century 
it  had  increased  to  one-eighth;  whilst  "the 
twentieth  century  city"  contains  at  least  one- 
third.  If  we  include  in  the  estimate  the  large 
towns,  fully  one-half  of  the  people  are  now  con- 
gregated in  the  city.  The  increase  in  the  popula- 
tion of  the  country,  during  the  last  century,  multi- 
plied itself  twelvefold,  whilst  in  the  same  period  the 
city  population  increased  nearly  an  hundredfold. 
Immigration,  which  threatens  the  purity  of  our 
Anglo-Saxon  stock,  as  well  as  the  morality  of  our 
citizenship,  makes  its  chief  attack  on  the  city.  If 
the  worst  elements  of  European  governments, 
which  drift  to  our  shores,  could  be  scattered  and 
distributed  in  the  rural  districts,  their  assimilation 
would  be  easier  and  less  dangerous  to  the  body 
politic;  but  instead,  they  swarm  into  our  great 
cities.  While  only  one-third  of  the  population  of 
the  United  States  is  foreign  by  birth  or  parentage, 
eighty  per  cent,  of  New  York  is  foreign  and 
ninety  per  cent,  of  Chicago. 

"  Two  things,  with  respect  to  immigration  are 
alarming  to  American  Christians  and  patriots ;  its 
magnitude  and  its  quality.  Think  of  a  single  ship, 
the  Bavaria,  bringing  in  one  voyage  2,854  steer- 
age passengers,  and  of  a  total  record,  of  immi- 
grants for  the  year  ending  April,  1903,  of  803,272! 
Seventeen  states  of  the  Union  have  each  less  popu- 
lation. Whereas  formerly  the  influx  was  almost 
entirely  of  the  Teutonic  race,  Irish  and  German, 
now  the  Slavonic  strain  preponderates,  and  the 


66  At  Our  Own  Door 

flood  is  largely  composed  of  illiterate  Italians" 
{Central  Preshyterian). 

The  Christian  Herald  startles  us  in  its  array  of 
statistics :  "  The  present  population  of  Chicago  is 
over  2,000,000.  About  ninety  per  cent,  of  the 
people  are  foreign  by  birth  or  parentage.  Every 
continent,  and  some  of  the  islands  of  the  earth, 
are  represented.  Sixty  languages  are  spoken. 
Different  nationalities  colonize  in  different  parts 
of  the  city,  until  one  can  visit  Bohemia,  Poland, 
Italy,  and  other  lands,  without  leaving  the  city 
limits. 

"  There  are  more  Germans  than  in  any  city  of 
Germany,  except  Berlin,  and  more  Poles  than  in 
any  city  in  Poland,  One  city  missionary  visiting 
from  house  to  house,  during  the  afternoon  of  a 
single  week,  offered  the  Gospel  to  fifteen  nation- 
alities. In  one  section,  not  two  miles  square, 
eighteen  languages  are  spoken.  Many  of  these 
people  do  not  understand  English.  Most  of  them 
are  nominally  Eomanists,  and  these  things  greatly 
increase  the  difficulty  of  reaching  them  with  the 
Gospel.  But  a  glance  at  the  city  shows  how  much 
the  Gospel  is  needed.  About  6,000  saloons  are 
doing  business  in  Chicago.  These  employ  31,600 
persons,  and  have  a  daily  income  of  $316,000.  In 
a  single  saloon,  on  a  certain  ordinary  Sabbath 
evening,  at  seven  o'clock,  there  were  counted  524 
men.  Within  the  next  two  hours  480  more  en- 
tered, until  men  were  standing  six  deep  around 
the  gambling  tables.  There  are  3,000  billiard 
and  pool  rooms.     Houses  of  impurity  abound.    In 


City  Missions  67 

one  ward  were  counted  312,  in  which  were  found 
1,708  inmates.  A  thousand  men  are  engaged  in 
alluring  other  men  into  these  dens. 

"The  religious  and  moral  destitution  of  the 
masses  is  startling.  Some  years  ago  a  section  was 
canvassed,  and  it  was  found  out  of  1,280  families 
visited,  1,220  did  not  possess  God's  word,  neither 
were  they  willing  to  receive  it.  The  canvas  of 
another  section,  revealed  1,140  families  with  no 
Bible,  with  1,823  families  neglecting  public  wor- 
ship, and  nearly  2,000  children  in  no  Sunday- 
schools.  It  is  not  uncommon  to  find  people  who 
never  saAv  a  Bible,  and  do  not  know  it  when  shown 
to  them.  One  woman  produced  on  invitation 
what  she  thought  was  her  Bible :  when,  on  her 
failing  to  find  the  Gospel  of  John,  the  visitor 
came  to  her  assistance,  it  was  to  discover  that  she 
had  "Webster's  Dictionary  in  her  hand.  'Well,' 
said  she,  '  if  that  is  not  a  Bible,  then  we  do  not 
have  one.'  There  are  said  to  be  twelve  Atheistic 
Sunday-schools  in  operation  in  the  city,  the  mem- 
bers of  which  are  indoctrinated  by  means  of  a 
catechism  whose  summary  states  that  there  is  no 
God,  no  Christ,  no  Holy  Ghost,  no  heaven,  no 
hell,  no  virtue  in  Christianity  and  no  integrity  in 
its  ministers." 

In  addition  to  immigration,  which  is  swelling 
the  size  of  our  cities.  Dr.  Strong  in  "  The  Twentieth 
Century  City  "  undertakes  to  account  for  the  in- 
crease of  urban  population  in  three  ways :  (1) 
The  application  of  machinery  to  agriculture,  by 
which  one  man  can  now  do  the  work  of  four  men 


68  At  Our  Own  Door 

formerly.  The  overproduction  of  farm  products 
drives  the  other  three  men  out  of  the  agricultural 
business  and  inevitably  to  the  city.  (2)  The  sub- 
stitution of  mechanical  for  muscular  power,  and 
its  application  to  manufacturers.  The  world's 
work  was  formerly  done  by  muscle,  and  the  word 
"  manufacturer  "  meant  something  made  by  hand. 
The  word  has  lost  its  meaning.  The  springing  up 
of  factories  in  the  city  to  produce  agricultural  im- 
plements and  a  thousand  other  things,  created  a 
demand  for  mechanical  labor,  and  attracted  to  the 
city  laborers,  who  were  being  driven  from  the 
farm.  (3)  The  increase  of  railroad  facilities, 
which  renders  it  easy  to  transport  population  from 
country  to  city,  and  easy  to  transport  food,  mak- 
ing it  possible  to  feed  millions  at  any  one  point, 
without  danger  of  famine. 

It  would  be  easy  to  enumerate  other  causes. 
The  concentration  of  wealth  in  the  city  means  as 
well  the  concentration  of  business.  The  city  does 
not  produce,  but  it  does  manufacture  the  products 
of  a  thousand  communities.  It  becomes  the  depot 
for  accumulating,  and  then  for  redistribution  of 
the  surplus  and  the  manufactured  product.  This 
makes  the  city  a  magnate  for  attracting  to  itself 
the  executive  ability  of  the  whole  country.  The 
development  of  business  ability  lands  one  in  the 
city  as  one  effect  of  the  law  of  supply  and  demand. 

Then,  the  city  has  its  educational  and  social  ad- 
vantages. The  high  character  of  the  graded 
school  system,  the  advantage  of  technological  in- 
stitutions and  great  universities  compel  many  fam- 


City  Missions  69 

ilies  to  locate  in  cities,  whilst  the  social  attractions 
are  equally  potent.  In  addition  to  all  other  con- 
siderations, there  is  always  the  vast  army  of  the 
unemployed,  always  moving  on  the  city,  in  the 
hope  of  finding  work,  or,  more  frequently,  an 
easier,  and  comparatively  idle,  life.  Sooner  or 
later,  this  vast  horde  finds  its  way  to,  and  its  level 
in,  the  slums. 

Philanthropists  have  thought  to  relieve  the  con- 
gestion of  the  city  by  transporting  many  of  the 
families  of  overcrowded  suburbs  and  slums  to  the 
unoccupied  lands  of  the  country.  But  the  remedy 
must  prove  superficial  since  the  idle  life  of  cities, 
being  more  to  their  taste,  than  hard  agricultural 
conditions,  they  will  soon  give  up  the  struggle  and 
drift  back  again.  Instead  of  relief  to  the  over- 
crowded city,  the  probability  is,  that  the  exhaus- 
tion of  the  public  lands  will  soon  close  the  safety 
valve  in  that  direction,  and  the  congestion  is  likely  /  -r^fy 
to  become  more  pronounced.  /   ^ 

2.  Overcrowding  in  the  city  breeds  suffering. 
Tenement  houses,  compared  with  which  the  aver- 
age prison  is  a  palace,  swarm  with  wretched 
humanity.  Damp  cellars  and  dark  attics,  where  a 
ray  of  sunshine  seldom  strays,  are  infested  with 
what,  we  hesitate  to  call,  "  human  vermin."  Large 
families  live,  eat  and  sleep  in  one  room  in  such 
condition  as  to  render  the  decencies  of  life  impos- 
sible. Dr.  Strong  quotes  from,  "  The  Bitter  Cry 
of  Outcast  London  "  :  "  Few  who  will  read  these 
pages  have  any  conception  of  what  these  pesti- 
lential human  rookeries  are,  where  tens  of  thou- 


7©  At  Our  Own  Door 

sands  are  crowded  together  amidst  horrors  which 
call  to  mind  what  we  have  heard  of  the  middle 
passages  of  the  slave  ships.  To  get  into  them, 
you  have  to  penetrate  courts,  reeking  with  poison- 
ous and  malodorous  gases,  arising  from  accumula- 
tions of  sewerage  and  refuse  scattered  in  all  direc- 
tions, and  often  flowing  beneath  your  feet ;  courts, 
many  of  which  the  sun  never  penetrates,  which  are 
never  visited  by  a  breath  of  fresh  air.  You  have 
to  ascend  rotten  staircases,  grope  your  way  along 
dark  and  filthy  passages,  swarming  with  vermin. 
Then  if  you  are  not  driven  back  by  the  intolerable 
stench,  you  may  gain  admittance  to  these  dens  in 
which  these  thousands  of  beings  herd  together. 
Eight  feet  square !  That  is  about  the  average  size 
of  very  many  of  these  rooms.  Walls  and  ceiling 
are  black  with  secretions  of  filth,  which  has  gath- 
ered upon  them  through  long  years  of  neglect. 
It  is  exuding  through  cracks  in  the  boards ;  it's 
everywhere !     .     .     . 

"  Every  room  in  these  rotten  and  reeking  tene- 
ments houses  a  family,  often  two.  In  one  cellar,  a 
sanitary  inspector  reports  finding  a  father,  mother ^ 
three  children,  and  four  pigs !  .  .  .  Here  are 
seven  people  living  in  one  underground  kitchen  and 
a  little  dead  child  lying  in  the  same  room.  Else- 
where there  is  a  poor  widow,  her  three  children, 
and  a  child  who  had  been  dead  thirteen  days. 
Her  husband,  who  was  a  cab  man,  had  shortly 
before  committed  suicide.  ...  In  another 
apartment,  nine  brothers  and  sisters,  from  twenty- 
nine  years  of  age  downward,  live,  eat,  and  sleep 


City  Missions  71 

together.  Here  is  a  mother,  who  turns  her  chil- 
dren in  the  streets  in  the  early  evening,  because 
she  lets  her  room  for  immoral  purposes  until  long 
after  midnight,  when  the  poor  little  w^retches 
creep  back  again,  if  they  have  not  found  some 
miserable  shelter  elsewhere.  "Where  there  are 
beds,  they  are  simply  heaps  of  dirty  rags,  shav- 
ings, or  straw :  but  for  the  most  part,  these 
miserable  beings  find  rest  only  upon  the  filthy 
boards.  .  .  .  There  are  men  and  women  who 
lie  and  die  day  by  day,  in  their  single  wretched 
room,  sharing  all  the  family  troubles,  enduring 
the  hunger  and  the  cold,  and  waiting,  without 
hope,  without  a  single  ray  of  comfort,  until  God 
curtains  their  staring  eyes  with  the  merciful  film 
of  death."  The  comment  of  Dr.  Strong  is  just : 
"  As  the  greatest  wickedness  in  the  world  is  to  be 
found,  not  among  the  cannibals  of  some  far  off 
coast,  but  in  Christian  land,  where  the  light  of 
truth  is  diffused  and  rejected,  so  the  uttermost 
depth  of  wretchedness  exists  not  among  savages, 
who  have  few  wants,  but  in  the  great  cities, 
where  in  the  presence  of  plenty  and  of  every  /^ 
luxury  men  starve."  ^  The  Health  Department 
of  New  York,  made  a  canvas  in  1888  of  the 
city,  which  revealed  the  fact  that  there  were 
32,390  tenement  houses,  occupied  by  237,972 
families,  and  1,093,701  souls!  As  Hazael  was 
startled  into  abhorrence  at  the  revelation  of  his 
future  self,  exclaiming :  "  Is  thy  servant  a  dog, 
that  he  should  do  this  thing?"  so  Baltimore, 
Kichmond,  Atlanta,  Louisville,  Memphis  and  New 


72  At  Our  Own  Door 

Orleans  may  see  and  abhor  in  London  and  New 
York  their  own  awful  future  ! 

3.  This  congestion  in  the  city  multiplies 
wickedness,  by  increasing  the  facilities  and  oppor- 
tunities for  crime.  Association  is  universally 
recognized  as  a  tremendous  power  for  good ;  but 
it  is  a  still  greater  power  for  evil.  The  advan- 
tages of  city  life  are  more  than  offset  by  its 
terrors.  Brilliantly  illuminated  saloons,  seductive 
gambling  clubs,  houses  of  ill  fame,  bucket  shops 
and  euchre  parties,  etc.,  constitute  a  variety  of 
mantraps,  alluring  their  thousands  of  the  better 
class  to  ruin ;  whilst  low  dives  and  nameless  dens 
of  infamy  are  the  antechamber  to  hell  for  tens  of 
thousands  of  the  lower  classes.  "Philadelphia 
and  Pittsburg  are  exceptionally  good  cities,  but  in 
Philadelphia  there  are  seven  and  a  half  times  as 
much  crime  to  a  given  population,  and  in  Pitts- 
burg and  Allegheny  City  nearly  nine  times  as 
much,  as  in  the  average  rural  county  of  Pennsyl- 
vania. ...  As  the  saloon  sustains  important 
relation  to  the  law,  it  desires  to  control  both  those 
who  make  the  laws  and  those  whose  duty  it  is  to 
enforce  them.  It  has  already  become  a  political 
institution  of  power.  Politicians  are  careful  not  to 
antagonize  it.  Its  political  support  or  opposition 
is  apt  to  be  decisive ;  for  saloon  keepers  are  liquor 
men  first,  and  Democrats  or  Kepublicans  after- 
wards. When  this,  their  craft,  therefore,  by 
which  they  have  their  wealth,  is  in  danger,  it  is 
easy  for  them  to  drop  their  political  differences, 
and  by  uniting  hold  the  balance  of  power,  and 


City  Missions  73 

wield  it  in  the  interests  of  their  business.  An 
astute  politician  in  New  York,  reputed  to  be  a 
total  abstainer  and  a  church  member,  said  he 
would  rather  have  the  support  of  the  saloons 
than  the  churches.  .  .  .  The  rottenest  politics 
on  earth  are  city  politics.  The  most  corrupt 
oflacer  that  is  elevated  to  power  ordinarily  is  the 
city  oflacial.  The  larger  the  city  the  more  apt  is 
it  to  be  ruled  by  a  boss,  ward  politicians  and  the 
saloon  "  (Twentieth  Century  City). 

The  spirit  of  commercialism  makes  residence  in 
the  city  as  great  a  peril  to  moral  health  as  con- 
tagion is  to  physical  health.  Business  competi- 
tion is  a  terrible  strain  on  the  man  who  is  com- 
pelled to  keep  abreast  with  his  unscrupulous 
competitor.  The  mad  rush  for  wealth  is  evident 
not  only  in  legitimate  trade  but  in  the  wildest 
speculation,  in  stocks,  grain,  and  cotton  futures. 
Great  corporations  are  grinding  their  employees 
and  lading  them  as  beasts  of  burden,  till  they 
practically  allow  no  Sabbath  of  rest,  from  the 
terrible  treadmill  of  life.  It  is  said  that  "  Society 
is  rotten  at  both  ends."  If  the  lowest  strata  is 
crushed  by  poverty  and  vice,  many  of  the  upper 
classes  are  so  occupied  with  fashionable  society 
clubs,  card  parties,  balls,  theatres,  etc.,  as  to  leave 
no  heart  and  taste  for  any  religion,  except  the 
formal,  fashionable,  sentimental,  asthetic  type, 
which  does  not  rudely  shock  their  taste,  seriously 
interfere  with  their  sins,  nor  require  any  self- 
denial  of  their  questionable  pleasures  and  amuse- 
ments.   On  the  other  hand,  the  low  vaudeville 


74  At  Our  Own  Door 

shows,  immoral  performances,  Sunday  baseball, 
and  so-called  religious  concerts,  given  in  the  in- 
terest of  the  working  people,  are  demoralizing  and 
excluding  the  Gospel  from  the  masses  of  the  peo- 
ple. But  it  is  not  the  province  of  this  chapter  to 
enter  into  any  of  the  details  of  city  life,  where 
humanity  festers  and  rots,  being  content  to  give 
merely  a  passing  glance  at  the  darker  side  of  the 
problem. 

4.  This  congestion  makes  the  city  a  constant 
menace  to  itself,  to  society  and  to  the  nation.  It 
has  been  said  that  our  enemies  were  once  far  away 
in  the  great  lawless  west ;  but  now,  they  camp  in 
solid  city  wards  ;  they  are  entrenched  behind  the 
endless  rows  of  tenement  houses.  Socialism,  in  the 
guise  of  love  for  the  working  classes,  is  sowing  the 
seed  of  its  spurious  gospel  in  sympathetic  soil, 
ready  to  germinate  as  in  a  hot  bed,  showing  its 
fruitage  in  disastrous  "strikes,"  and  in  the  mutter- 
ings  of  irresponsible  mobs,  shaking  their  threaten- 
ing fists  in  the  direction  of  property  and  hurling 
their  curses  at  the  church.  "  Saltpetre,  sulphur 
and  charcoal,  are  each  one  non-explosive,  but 
brought  together,  they  make  gunpowder.  Neither 
ignorance  nor  vice  is  revolutionary  when  quite 
comfortable,  nor  is  wretchedness,  when  controlled 
by  intelligence  and  conscience.  But  ignorance, 
vice  and  wretchedness  comhined,  constitute  social 
dynamite,  of  which  the  city  slum  is  a  magazine, 
awaiting  only  a  casual  spark  to  burst  into  terrific 
destruction.  .  .  .  Most  of  our  great  cities  have 
at  some  time  been  in  the  hands  of  a  mob.     In  the 


City  Missions  75 

summer  of  1892,  within  a  few  days  of  each  other, 
New  York,  Pennsylvania  and  Tennessee  ordered 
out  their  militia,  and  Idaho  called  on  the  United 
States  government  for  troops  to  suppress  labor 
riots.  More  recent  instances  are  fresh  in  mind. 
That  is  not  self-government,  but  government  by 
military  force.  There  is  peril  when  the  Statue  of 
Liberty  is  compelled  to  lean  on  the  point  of  a  bayo- 
net for  support.  Sooner  or  later  it  will  pierce  her 
hand.  The  city,  in  a  position  to  dictate  to  state  and 
nation,  and  yet  incapable  of  self-government,  is  like 
Nero  on  the  throne  "  (Twentieth  Century  City). 

"  The  president  of  the  Mormon  Church  casts  60,- 
000  votes.  The  Jesuits,  it  is  said,  are  all  under 
command  of  one  man  in  Washington.  The  Eoman 
Catholic  vote  is  more  or  less  perfectly  controlled 
by  the  priests.  That  means  that  the  pope  can  dic- 
tate 100,000  of  votes  in  the  United  States.  .  .  . 
The  result  of  a  national  election  may  depend  on 
a  single  State  ;  the  vote  of  the  State  may  depend 
on  a  single  city ;  the  vote  of  that  city  may  depend 
on  a  boss,  or  a  capitalist  or  a  corporation  ;  or  the 
election  may  be  decided  and  the  policy  of  the  gov- 
ernment may  be  reversed,  by  the  Socialist  or 
liquor,  or  Eoman  Catholic,  or  immigrant  vote.  It 
matters  not  by  what  name  we  call  this  man  who 
wields  this  centralized  power — whether  king,  czar, 
pope,  president,  capitalist,  or  boss.  Just  so  far  as 
it  is  absolute  and  irresponsible,  it  is  dangerous  " 
(Our  Country). 

In  the  language  of  James  Freeman  Clark :  "  A 
time  comes  in  the  downfall  and  corruption  of  com- 


76  At  Our  Own  Door 

munities,  when  good  men  struggle  ineffectually 
against  the  tendencies  of  ruin.  Hannibal  could 
not  save  Carthage ;  Marcus  Antoninus  could  not 
save  the  Roman  Empire ;  Demosthenes  could  not 
save  Greece,  and  Jesus  Christ  Himself  could  not 
save  Jerusalem  from  decay  and  destruction." 

Are  the  dangerous  elements  netted  together  in  a 
web  of  evil,  also  drawing  their  lines  closer  around 
our  Anglo-Saxon  civilization  ?  Will  history  repeat 
itself  ? 

"  "When  some  commercial  crisis  has  closed  fac- 
tories by  the  thousands,  and  wage- workers  have 
been  thrown  out  of  employment  by  the  million ; 
when  the  public  lands,  which  hitherto  at  such 
times  have  afforded  relief,  are  all  exhausted  ;  when 
our  urban  population  has  been  multiplied  several 
fold,  and  our  Cincinnatis  have  become  Chicagos, 
our  Chicagos  New  Yorks,  and  our  !N"ew  Yorks 
Londons ;  when  class  antipathies  are  deepened ; 
when  socialistic  organizations,  armed  and  drilled, 
are  in  every  city,  and  the  ignorant,  vicious  power 
of  crowded  population,  has  fully  found  itself ;  when 
the  corruption  of  city  governments  has  grown 
apace ;  when  crops  fail,  or  some  gigantic  '  corner  ' 
doubles  the  price  of  bread ;  with  starvation  in  the 
home ;  with  idle  workmen  gathered,  sullen  and 
desperate,  in  the  saloons  ;  with  unprotected  wealth 
at  hand  ;  with  the  tremendous  forces  of  chemistry 
within  easy  reach  ;  then,  with  the  opportunity,  the 
means f  the  fit  agents,  the  motive,  the  temptation  to 
destroy,  all  brought  into  evil  conjunction,  then, 
will  come  the  real  test  of  our  institutions,  then  will 


City  Missions  77 

appear  whether  we  are  capable  of  self-government " 
(Our  Country). 

These  quotations  are  given  in  order  that  the  evil 
which  exists  and  the  perils  which  confront  may  be 
portrayed  mainly  in  the  language  of  others.  Now, 
arises  the  question,  Is  there  any  remedy  ?  If  so, 
what  ?  Without  any  hesitation  it  may  be  stated 
that  the  remedy  is  not  radical  enough,  which  is 
trying  to  "  purify  politics  "  by  means  of  "  good 
government  clubs,"  by  education  of  the  masses,  by 
moral  reform,  by  prohibition  crusades,  or  by  social- 
istic schemes.  The  very  best  of  these  is  "  healing 
but  slightly  the  hurt  of  the  daughter  of  my  people." 
All  human  means  are  foredestined  to  fail.  The 
divine  remedy  is  the  gosj)el.  The  only  power  that 
can  save  the  city  is  the  power  that  can  save  the 
soul ;  it  is  the  power  of  Jesus  Christ.  If  moral 
reformation  will  not  save  a  soul,  neither  will  it  re- 
deem the  city.  Two  men  were  walking  in  the 
slums  of  a  great  city.  The  skeptic  said  to  the 
Christian  :  "  Here  at  least,  you  must  admit  that 
the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ  has  failed."  "By  no 
means,"  replied  the  other, "  it  has  never  been  tried." 
If  Christ  fails,  it  is  the  height  of  presumption,  the 
supremest  human  conceit,  to  attempt  the  quackery 
of  human  philosophy.  The  church  has  experi- 
mented with  city  missions.  The  most  ardent  ad- 
vocate could  scarcely  claim  brilliant  success ;  but 
has  the  gospel  failed  ? 

5.  This  raises  the  problem  of  city  missions. 
Beyond  all  question,  it  is  the  greatest  problem 
which  taxes  the  thought  and  exercises  the  heart  of 


yS  At  Our  Own  Door 

the  church  to-day.  The  man  who  finds  the  solu- 
tion, will  win  immortality,  as  the  greatest  of 
human  benefactors.  The  Negro  Problem,  The 
Eastern  Question,  the  profoundest  Enigma,  which 
taxes  the  mind  of  political  economists  are  insig- 
nificant in  comparison.  They  concern  the  welfare 
of  the  kingdoms  of  this  world.  The  Christian 
philosopher,  who  solves  the  problem  of  city  mis- 
sions, will  serve  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  Whilst 
denying  the  failure  of  the  Gospel,  we  are  none  the 
less  ready  to  admit  the  failure  to  a  large  extent  of 
the  Church.  It  is  said  that  the  masses  are  drift- 
ing away  from  the  Church.  It  is  a  mistake.  They 
are  not  drifting;  they  have  already  drifted! 
They  are  already  beyond  reach,  humanly  speak- 
ing. People  in  the  city  nearest  the  church,  are 
often  farthest  from  Christ.  In  spite  of  the  fact 
that  all  denominations  are  building  up  great 
churches  in  the  city,  thoroughly  alive  seemingly 
to  the  wants  of  humanity,  and  the  interests  of  the 
kingdom  of  Christ,  it  yet  remains  an  awful  fact 
which  we  cannot  ignore,  that  the  great  masses 
have  drifted  away,  and  are  dying  without  Christ, 
under  the  very  shadow  of  the  Church.  Is  it  not 
equally  true — perhaps  the  explanation  of  it  all — 
that  the  Church  has  drifted  away  from  the 
masses?  To  what  extent  has  the  church  also 
drifted  away  from  Christ  ?  "  Back  to  Christ,"  as 
a  theology  may  be  a  delusion ;  but  "  Back  to 
Christ "  as  a  model  of  life  and  character,  may  be  a 
necessity.  Is  there  any  significance  in  the  fact 
that  an  audience  of  these  "  drifted  masses  "  will 


City  Missions  79 

sometimes  cheer  the  name  of  Christ  and  hiss  the 
Church  ?  Many  a  church  to-day,  is  seeking  mem- 
bers, chiefly  to  save  itself  and  not  so  much  to  save 
the  souls.  If  the  Church  has  not  drifted  away 
from  the  people,  why  is  it  drifting  away  from 
"  down  town,"  where  the  people  multiply  in  ever 
increasing  numbers  ? 

"  In  the  fourth  and  seventh  wards  of  New  York 
City,  there  are  T0,000  people,  and  seven  Protestant 
churches  and  chapels,  or  one  place  of  worship  to 
every  ten  thousand  of  the  population.  In  the 
tenth  ward  there  is  a  population  of  47,000  and  two 
churches  and  chapels.  South  of  14th  Street,  there 
was  in  1880  a  population  of  541,726,  for  whom 
there  were  109  Protestant  churches  and  missions,  or 
about  one  to  every  5,000  souls.  In  1890  according 
to  the  police  census,  there  was  in  the  same  quar- 
ter a  population  of  596,878,  an  increase  of  50,000, 
while  of  churches  and  missions  there  was  an  in- 
crease of  one.  Indeed,  the  Christian  force  is  not 
so  large  now  as  it  was  ten  or  even  twenty  years  ago, 
because  churches  have  moved  out  and  been  re- 
placed by  missions.  It  was  stated  by  Dr.  Schauffler 
in  1888,  that  during  the  preceding  twenty  years, 
nearly  200,000  people  had  moved  in  below  14th 
Street,  and  seventeen  Protestant  churches  had 
moved  out.  One  Jewish  Synagogue  and  two 
Eoman  Catholic  Churches  had  been  added.  So 
that  counting  churches  of  every  kind,  there  were 
fourteen  less  than  there  were  twenty  years  before, 
notwithstanding  the  great  increase  of  population  " 
(Our  Country). 


8o  At  Our  Own  Door 

City  missions  are  the  most  difficult  of  all  work. 
"  Said  a  Bishop  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  in  the  early  days  of  organized  home  mis- 
sionary eifort  by  its  women,  '  You  have  two  fields 
before  you — the  frontiers  and  the  cities.  The  lat- 
ter is  the  largest  and  most  important,  and  will 
eventually  claim  the  largest  share  of  the  attention 
of  your  societies.  But  you  cannot  touch  cities 
with  systematic  effort  until  you  have  a  strong  or- 
ganization.    You  must  begin  with  the  frontiers.' " 

It  has  been  said  that  city  missions  have  had 
money  enough  expended  on  them  to  convert  the 
world,  if  it  had  been  wisely  distributed.  More 
money  can  be  raised  for  city  work  than  for 
any  other  cause.  The  rich,  benevolent  people  of 
our  city  churches,  see  the  needs  of  the  slums,  and  are 
willing  to  give  of  their  abundance  for  the  needy, 
whom  alas  !  their  money  can  seldom  reach.  Mul- 
titudes will  give  money.  They  need  to  give  some- 
thing Qnore  valuable  than  this  !  More  good,  ear- 
nest, consecrated  men  have  broken  their  very 
hearts  on  city  missions  than  perhaps  over  any 
other  matter.  Numbers  of  young  ministers 
"jump  at  the  suggestion"  of  a  city  mission, 
imagining  they  will  soon  be  pastor  of  a  city 
church,  with  all  the  advantages  such  a  position 
brings.  Not  knowing  the  difficulties,  and  not 
seeking  always  the  welfare  of  souls,  as  their  sole 
aim,  but  actuated  by  a  desire  to  "build  up  a 
church  "  for  their  own  advancement,  they  soon  be- 
come discouraged,  break  their  hearts  over  the 
failure  of  the  mission  and  the  failure  of  their 


City  Missions  8l 

ministry  and  are  too  ready  to  "  make  a  change  " 
for  something  easier  and  "more  promising." 
"Who  can  blame  them?  They  never  undei'took 
it  with  the  expectation  of  sacrificing  their  whole 
life  to  an  idea,  but  rather  as  a  stepping  stone  to 
something  higher.  Many  city  missions  thus  fail, 
because  the  promoters  are  compelled  to  change  the 
minister  so  frequently  and  carry  on  the  work  so 
irregularly. 

City  missions  fail  also  because  they  do  not  de- 
velop as  rapidly  as  the  promoters  had  hoped,  and 
the  mission  is  prematurely  abandoned,  "  because  it 
does  not  pay."  The  church  which  undertakes  a 
mission  must  do  it  for  Christ's  sake  and  be  willing 
to  receive  no  returns,  if  need  be.  "  A  pawn  broker 
with  a  heart  chipped  out  of  flint  would  cheerfully 
give  on  the  same  inviting  terms — one  dollar  for 
the  return  of  a  thousand.  To  give  in  order  to  get, 
is  not  giving  at  all ;  it  is  only  investing.  That  is 
not  Christianity,  but  business  as  now  conducted. 
Oh,  when  shall  we  get  rid  of  this  commercialism 
in  religion  ?  Love  is  not  commercial ;  it  calcu- 
lates no  returns.  It  breaks  the  alabaster  box  of 
self -concern  and  pours  out  the  precious  ointment 
of  devotion  without  measure  and  without  price  " 
(Twentieth  Century  City). 

If  the  desperate  wickedness  of  the  city  has  been 
portrayed,  neither  has  there  been  any  effort  made 
to  conceal  the  difficulties  and  discouragements 
awaiting  those  who  enter  the  uninviting  field  of 
city  missions.  Correct  diagnosis  is  essential  be- 
fore undertaking  to  apply  remedies.     Already  the 


82  At  Our  Own  Door 

remedy  for  the  slums,  as  well  as  the  brown-stone 
fronts,  has  been  stated  as  the  Gospel.  But  the 
practical  question  is,  How  to  bring  the  gospel  in 
contact  with  the  masses  ?  By  all  odds,  the  most 
widely  employed  means  has  been  the  mission  Sab- 
bath-school. These  have  done  a  noble  work  for 
Christ  and  humanity.  Many  have  developed 
under  favorable  circumstances  into  self-supporting 
churches.  Many  more  have  produced  results 
which  can  be  estimated  only  in  the  great  here- 
after. Failures  from  a  human  standpoint  are 
often  successes  from  the  divine.  "  The  Lord  seeth 
not  as  man  seeth."  Real  failure  is  sometimes  due 
to  the  fact  that  the  workers  do  not  live  among 
their  proteges,  and  fail  to  enlist  assistant  laborers 
in  the  vicinity.  Often  the  fruit  cultivated  so  as- 
siduously is  not  gathered  into  any  permanent  fold, 
and  is  practically  lost  to  the  church.  Even  in  the 
face  of  these  disadvantages,  we  bid  Godspeed  to 
all  such  Sabbath-school  workers.  Eternity  alone 
can  answer  the  question,  "  What  shall  the  harvest 
be?" 

Next  to  Sabbath-school,  stands  "  The  Mission," 
whether  "  Chapel "  or  infant  church.  Success 
or  failure  is  often  determined  by  location.  If 
in  a  section  that  develops  into  good  homes,  the 
probability  of  success  is  assured.  Failure  is  often 
due  to  the  fact  that  Christian  workers  will  pat- 
ronize the  "  mission  "  and  hold  their  membership 
in  an  up-town  church.  The  better  classes  living  in 
a  stone's  throw  of  the  chapel  will  take  the  street 
cars  for  a  "  First "  church,  where  they  can  hear 


City  Missions  83 

up-to-date  sermons,  and  good  choirs  and  enjoy 
social  advantages.  Mission  churches  are  offended 
at  the  patronage  of  such  Christians,  and  the 
masses  find  to  their  chagrin  that  the  distinctions 
of  society  are  rigidly  enforced  in  church  circles, 
and  so  become  prejudiced  against  the  church  and 
let  the  "  mission  "  severely  alone.  Above  all  other 
considerations,  the  minister  who  undertakes  mis- 
sion work,  ought  not  to  be  actuated  by  a  desire  to 
train  himself  for  some  higher  position.  Many  men 
fail  because  they  are  giving  themselves  to  "  study  " 
and  visiting  the  people  only  in  a  professional  way. 
Men  "  volunteer  "  for  foreign  missions,  and  expect 
to  make  it  a  life-work.  Who  volunteers  for  city 
mission  work,  with  the  expectation  of  "  enlisting 
for  the  war  "  ?  Men  in  estimating  the  attractions 
of  Christ  for  sinners,  quote  as  an  explanation, 
"  This  man  receiveth  sinners  ;  "  but  they  omit  and 
overlook  the  most  important  additional  clause, 
"And  eateth  with  them."  Men  like  Jerry  Mc- 
Auley  and  Hadley,  who  will  enter  into  the  social 
life  of  the  masses  and  sacrifice  their  whole  life  to 
such  high  purpose  will  find,  that  "  He  that  loseth 
his  life  for  My  sake  (by  voluntary  exile  in  the 
slums)  will  find  it  "  (in  the  highest  sphere  of  use- 
fulness). The  slums  can  only  be  reached  in  the 
spirit  of  Christ.  Not  many  such  experiments  have 
been  made. 

However  questionable  an  Institutional  Church 
may  be,  in  some  respects  and  in  some  quarters, 
may  it  not  be  possible,  that  it  may  be  the  remedy 
for  the  slums ;  provided  always  that  the  Institu- 


84  At  Our  Own  Door 

tional  features  are  subservient  to  and  not  substi- 
tuted for,  the  Gospel.  Its  "  organized  charities," 
"  sheltering  arms,"  "  rescue  work,"  "  door  of  hope," 
"trained  nurses  for  the  sick,"  "night  schools," 
"  kindergarten,"  etc.,  ought  not  to  be  ends  in  them- 
selves but  means  always  to  the  one  end  of  bring- 
ing the  Gospel  to  bear  on  heart  and  conscience  and 
life.  Many  illustrations  of  the  success  of  such  ef- 
forts have  been  published.  One  notable  instance 
stands  out  prominently  in  Atlanta,  The  Baptist 
Tabernacle  of  Dr.  L.  G,  Broughton. 

In  1899,  Dr.  Broughton  conceived  the  idea  of 
establishing  a  church  which  would  touch  humanity 
at  every  point,  ministering  unto  the  needs  of  men 
foursquare,  physical,  mental,  moral  and  spiritual. 
Beginning  with  about  300  communicants  it  has 
grown  in  less  than  five  years  to  over  1,500.  Com- 
posed almost  exclusively  of  poor  people,  they  raise 
for  current  expenses,  annually,  an  enormous  sum. 
Recently,  to  enlarge  their  plant,  they  raised  on 
one  Sabbath  $15,000.  The  Institutional  features 
have  grown  with  the  growth  of  the  church.  Some 
of  the  special  features  are  as  follows :  An  in- 
firmary for  the  sick  ;  a  home  for  helpless  women  ; 
a  training  school  for  Christian  nurses  ;  a  school  in 
domestic  science  ;  a  Christian  dormitory  for  young 
women  ;  seven  missions  and  night  schools  ;  a  Sab- 
bath-school with  ordinary  classes  and  special  fea- 
tures in  the  way  of  primary  department,  young 
men's  class  and  society,  young  woman's,  mothers' 
class,  etc. ;  a  lecture  course,  including  many  of  the 
most  prominent  lecturers  of  the  country ;  a  Bible 


City  Missions  85 

conference  modelled  after  Northfield  taught  by 
such  men  as  Campbell  Morgan,  etc. 

The  Tabernacle  has  a  seating  capacity  of  3,500 
and  is  ordinarily  filled  and  often  packed  at  the 
regular  Sabbath  services.  As  all  roads  lead  to 
Rome  and  all  Scriptures  to  Christ ;  so,  as  far  as 
the  writer  has  been  able  to  judge,  all  these  Insti- 
tutional features  are  made  subservient  to  the  great 
object  of  preaching  "  Christ  and  Him  Crucified." 

It  may  be  said  his  success  is  due  to  sensational 
methods.  That  would  only  partially  account  for 
the  results.  The  writer  among  others  supplied 
the  Tabernacle  during  the  absence  of  Dr.  Brough- 
ton  in  Europe  in  the  spring  of  1903.  With 
no  "  sensational  Broughton  "  to  draw,  at  night  in 
addition  to  a  vast  auditorium  packed,  there  were 
more  people  in  the  gallery  than  the  average  At- 
lanta preacher  has  in  his  audience. 

The  time  is  not  far  distant  when  the  Church  is 
destined  to  awake  to  the  great  need  of  this  par- 
ticular home  field.  She  has  heard,  and  has  nobly 
responded  to,  the  Macedonian  cry  of  countless 
heathen  on  foreign  shores.  Does  she  hear  the 
dumb  appeal  of  "  the  heathen  nearer,"  the  more 
pitiable  and  pathetic,  because  dumb  ?  Thank 
God  the  day  is  not  far  distant.  "  The  morning 
light  is  breaking,"  not  simply  in  China  and  Africa 
but  in  the  slums  of  London,  New  York  and  Chi- 
cago. The  Salvation  Army  was  the  first  ray  of 
hope  to  a  despairing  cry,  "  Watchmen,  what  of  the 
night  ?  " 

"  The  distinct  office  of  organized  home  missions 


86  At  Our  Own  Door 

is  to  plant  churches  ;  and  where  are  churches  more 
in  demand  than  in  the  reeking  city  slums  ?  Is  it 
asked  '  Where  are  members  to  be  found  ? '  They 
can  be  imported.  Our  social  settlements  are  made 
up  of  consecrated  men  and  women,  who  import 
the  home,  in  their  own  persons,  into  the  very  cen- 
tres of  slumdom.  Are  there  none  to  carry  the 
Church  ?  '  But  how  are  such  churches  to  be 
equipped  and  supported  ?  '  As  hospitals  are  built, 
as  asylums  are  supported,  as  libraries  are  equipped, 
as  colleges  are  endowed.  Shall  millions  be  poured 
out  for  the  suffering  bodies  and  darkened  minds 
of  the  poor  and  unprivileged,  and  must  the  Church, 
with  its  diviner  gifts  of  healing,  be  denied  for  the 
want  of  a  few  thousand  dollars  ? 

"  The  author  makes  no  claim  to  prophetic  gifts, 
but  he  believes  that  organized  home  missions  will 
not  always  turn  a  deaf  ear  to  the  bitter  cry  of  the 
city,  and  pass  by  on  the  other  side.  The  boast 
has  been  that  for  a  hundred  years  it  has  followed 
the  people ;  then  it  must  seek  them  within  the 
city  gates.  To  do  so  will  be  the  truest  economy 
as  well  as  the  highest  strategy.  The  wise  general 
masses  his  army  where  the  enemy  is  densest" 
(Leavening  the  Nation). 

Let  the  Church  begin  to  gird  herself  for  a  tre- 
mendous and  thoroughly  organized  effort.  Let 
the  best  young  men  "  volunteer "  for  a  living 
death  to  all  the  luxuries  and  social  advantages 
among  men,  for  a  work  more  difficult,  and  in  con- 
sequence more  heroic  and  glorious,  than  even  the 
foreign  field.     Let  the  ancient  order  of  "  Deacon- 


City  Missions  87 

ess "  be  revived  in  the  class  of  devoted  women, 
who  are  willing  to  surrender  everything  else  for 
the  service  of  Christ,  in  Bible  readings,  in  the 
homes  of  the  poor,  distributing  alms,  nursing  the 
sick,  "  helpers  "  in  the  same  sense  as  those  com- 
mended by  Paul  as  laboring  with  him  in  the  gos- 
pel. The  time  for  experiments  has  passed,  the 
Church  must  get  down  to  the  business  of  her  great 
mission. 

Kow,  let  us  consider  why  other  denominations 
are  frequently  more  successful  than  Presbyterians 
in  city  mission  work. 

{a)  Presbyterians  do  not  readily  degenerate  into 
such  material  as  compose  the  slums.  The  writer 
has  labored  in  the  slums,  alms  houses,  prisons,  etc., 
and  has  seldom  found  any  Presbyterians  among 
such  as  abound  in  those  places.  Consequently, 
other  denominations  find  more  of  their  material 
in  the  slums,  and  more  people  in  sympathy  with 
their  system. 

{b)  If  this  is  at  all  gratifying  to  our  denomina- 
tional pride,  a  second  consideration  will  counterbal- 
ance it  and  take  all  of  the  pride  out  of  us,  Presby- 
terians have  neglected  the  country  till  other  denomi- 
nations have  practically  taken  it ;  and  so  the  streams 
which  flow  into  the  city  are  not  Presbyterian 
streams.  These  make  the  great  city  churches  among 
the  better  classes  and  the  mission  churches  among: 
the  poor ;  therefore  others  build  up  city  missions, 
where  we  fail.  In  order  to  keep  pure  the  water 
of  the  city,  supplied  by  the  great  Croton  Aque- 
duct, it  is  necessary  to  give  strict  sanitary  inspec- 


88  At  Our  Own  Door 

tion  to  the  small  streams  which  feed  it  forty  miles 
away.  If  Presbyterians  expect  to  evangelize 
properly  the  city,  they  must  begin  on  the  country, 
which  is  furnishing  the  streams  flowing  into  the 
city. 

(c)  Other  denominations  adopt  sensational 
methods  which  appeal  often  to  one's  lower  nature 
and  frequently  are  content  to  entertain  the  people 
in  order  to  collect  a  crowd,  whilst  Presbyterians 
are  charged  sometimes  with  being  more  concerned 
about  "  orthodoxy  "  and  "  right  methods "  than 
"  reaching  the  masses."  Is  this  testimony  true  ? 
If  so,  let  a  commendable  zeal  atone  for  the  past. 

If  the  Church  would  take  into  consideration  the 
value  of  the  time  factor  as  an  element  in  saving 
the  cities,  she  must  begin  now  on  Birmingham, 
Atlanta,  Dallas,  etc.,  before  they  become  the  New 
Yorks  and  Chicagos  of  the  South.  Money  and 
effort  spent  now  will  save  greater  expenditures  in 
the  future.  "  One  man  now  is  worth  a  hundred 
fifty  years  hence.  One  dollar  is  worth  a  thousand 
then.  Now,  is  the  nick  of  time."  The  time  to 
save  these  younger  cities  is  before  they  are  lost ! 

If  every  great  city  to-day  in  its  wickedness  is  a 
veritable  hell  on  earth,  yet  purified  and  trans- 
formed, the  city  is  a  type  of  heaven,  "  the  city 
which  hath  foundation,  whose  builder  and  maker 
is  God,"  "  the  city  of  the  living  God,  the  heavenly 
Jerusalem."  "  And  the  twelve  gates  were  twelve 
pearls  ;  and  the  streets  of  the  city  were  pure  gold, 
as  it  were  transparent  glass."  ..."  And  the 
city  had  no  need  of  the  sun,  neither  of  the  moon 


City  Missions  89 

to  shine  in  it ;  for  the  glory  of  God  did  lighten 
it,  and  the  Lamb  is  the  light  thereof.  .  .  . 
And  the  gates  of  it  shall  not  be  shut  at  all  by  day ; 
for  there  shall  be  no  night  there." 


IV 

MOUNTAINEERS 

As  the  Kocky  Mountains  stretch  across  our 
western  country,  from  extreme  north  to  south, 
parallel  with  the  Pacific,  so  the  east  has  the 
Appalachian  range  that  parallels  the  Atlantic. 
Its  southern  extremity  expands  into  the  Blue 
Ridge  and  Cumberland  Mountains,  forming  a 
unique  section,  embracing  large  parts  of  West 
Yirginia,  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  North  Carolina 
and  Georgia,  which  is  known  as  "  The  Land  of  the 
Sky."  Its  picturesque  scenery  and  marvellous 
beauty  entitle  it  to  the  name  by  which  it  is  often 
designated,  "The  Switzerland  of  America."  Its 
bracing  climate,  pure  crystal  streams,  mineral 
waters  and  famous  health  resorts  annually  attract 
multitudes  of  tourists  from  every  section  of  our 
country.  Its  hills  are  rich  in  minerals  and  rare 
stones,  which  will  at  some  time  in  the  future 
possibly  greatly  enrich  multitudes  whose  only 
worldly  possessions  at  present  are  barren  hills  and 
rugged  cliffs.  More  than  forty  of  its  mountain 
peaks  reach  an  elevation  of  6,000  feet,  whilst 
Mount  Mitchell  in  North  Carolina,  supposed  to  be 
the  highest  east  of  the  Mississippi,  lifts  its  head 
8,000  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea. 

"The  highest  perpendicular  face  east  of  the 
90 


Mountaineers  91 

Mississippi  is  to  be  found  on  "Whiteside  Moun- 
tain, where  is  a  wall  two  miles  in  length  with  a 
sheer  drop  of  1,800  feet.  Precipices  hundreds  of 
feet  deep  are  not  uncommon.  As  we  stand  on  the 
edge  of  one  of  these  precipices,  just  above  the 
rocky  cavern  1,000  feet  below  us,  the  mighty 
forest  trees  in  the  valley  appear  as  mere  bushes, 
the  valley  extends  for  miles  to  one  side ;  in  front 
hill  rises  above  hill,  range  after  range,  peer  up  be- 
hind one  another,  mountain  rises  above  mountain, 
and  the  landscape  stretches  out  in  awful  majesty 
for  scores  of  miles,  until  it  fades  away  in  a  misty 
horizon.  The  solemn  silence  that  prevails  empha- 
sizes the  grandeur  of  the  scene." 

The  whole  mountain  region  is  estimated  at  500 
miles  long  and  300  miles  wide,  and  contains  a 
population  a  little  in  excess  of  2,000,000  of  souls. 

In  North  Georgia,  where  this  section  terminates, 
there  is  one  mountain  isolated  and  separated  from 
its  fellows  and  for  this  reason  called  "  Lost  Moun- 
tain." As  an  allegory,  it  may  aptly  represent  the 
people  of  the  mountain  regions.  Separated  and 
isolated  from  the  mass  they  are  the  lost  tribe  of 
America,  whom  Walter  A.  Page  calls  "  The  For- 
gotten Man."  One  hundred  years  ago,  the  moun- 
taineer retreated  to  the  hill  country,  whilst 
advancing  civilization  passed  him  by  in  its  onward 
march.  About  the  time  he  lost  himself  in  the 
mountains,  railroads  began  to  penetrate  forests 
and  cross  the  plains ;  steamboats  began  to  ply 
rivers  and  lakes.  The  mountaineer  is  ignorant  of 
their  existence.     The  telegraph  brought  all  the 


92  At  Our  Own  Door 

rest  of  the  world  in  close  contact.  The  moun- 
taineer was  excluded  from,  the  universal  bond. 
The  nineteenth  century  exceeds  all  past  ages  in  its 
discoveries  and  went  forward  by  leaps  and  bounds 
in  advancing  civilization.  For  the  mountaineer, 
the  world  has  stood  absolutely  still.  "The  sub- 
merged tenth"  in  our  cities  is  not  more  com- 
pletely buried  in  its  living  grave  of  the  slums 
than  our  "Highlanders"  lost  among  the  moun- 
tains 2,000,000  strong.  The  world  which  had  for- 
gotten its  lost  brother-man,  is  beginning  now  to 
think  of  the  "  one  out  on  the  hills  away,  far  off 
from  the  gates  of  gold."  The  search  is  now  on 
by  philanthropists  and  churchmen,  and  soon  may 
the  time  come 

, "  When  all  through  the  mountains  thunder  riven, 
And  up  from  the  rocky  steep, 
There  will  rise  the  glad  shout  to  the  gate  of  heaven, 
'  Eejoice,  for  I  have  found  my  sheep.'  " 

Who  are  they  and  whence  came  they?  The 
historian  traces  their  ancestry  back  to  Antrim  and 
Ulster  in  North  Ireland;  and  yet  they  are  not 
natives  of  Ireland.  By  reason  of  their  Eomish 
sympathies  in  the  great  English  struggle  for  free- 
dom and  Protestantism,  the  Earls  of  Tyrone  and 
Tyrconnel  forfeited  their  great  landed  estates  in  all 
that  region,  where  Belfast  now  towers  in  her 
morality  and  Christianity  above  Dublin  and  Cork. 
These  forfeited  lands  were  settled  by  colonists 
from  Scotland,  and  are  now  known  in  history  as 
Scotch-Irish.     All  the  world  knows  their  proud 


Mountaineers  93 

record  and  great  moral  influence  among  men. 
Books  have  been  written  to  commemorate  their 
influence  in  the  making  of  this  great  American  Re- 
public, and  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  these 
United  States.  These  streams  of  Scotch-Irish 
flowed  in  chiefly  through  the  port  at  Philadelphia, 
driven  from  home  by  the  Test  oath,  which  re- 
quired every  one  to  subscribe  to  English  prelacy. 
James  Anthony  Froude  says  :  "  In  the  two  years 
which  followed  the  Antrim  election,  30,000  left 
Ulster  for  a  land,  where  there  was  no  legal 
robbery,  and  where  those  who  sowed  the  seed 
could  reap  the  harvest."  By  this  means,  Pennsyl- 
vania and  Virginia  acquired  some  of  the  best  class 
of  colonists  that  ever  emigrated  to  a  new  country. 
These  streams  continued  to  flow  westward  and 
southward  till  they  had  preempted  for  themselves 
and  their  posterity  the  mountains  of  Virginia, 
Kentucky  and  Tennessee.  Undaunted  by  the 
hardships  of  life,  environed  by  trackless  forests 
and  treacherous  savages,  they  pushed  on  into  the 
very  heart  of  the  wilderness,  to  carve  out  for 
themselves  a  home  of  their  own  making,  under 
conditions  of  their  own  choosing.  Said  President 
Roosevelt  recently :  "  They  were  the  first  and 
last  set  of  immigrants  to  do  this.  All  others 
merely  followed  in  the  wake  of  their  predecessors. 
But  indeed  they  were  fitted  from  the  very  start 
to  be  Americans;  they  were  kinsfolks  of  the 
Covenanters  ;  they  deemed  it  a  religious  duty  to 
interpret  their  own  Bibles,  and  held  for  a  divine 
right  the  election  of  their  clergy.     For  genera- 


94  At  Our  Own  Door 

tions  their  whole  ecclesiastic  and  scholastic  sys- 
tems had  been  fundamentally  democratic.  In  the 
hard  life  of  the  frontier  they  lost  much  of  their 
religion,  and  they  had  but  scant  opportunities  to 
give  their  children  the  schooling  in  which  they  be- 
lieved ;  but  what  schoolhouses  and  meeting-houses 
there  were  on  the  frontier,  were  theirs.  The 
Creed  of  the  backwoodsman,  who  had  a  creed  at 
all,  was  Presbyterian ;  for  the  Episcopacy  of  the 
tide  water  lands  obtained  no  fasthold  in  the 
mountains  to  the  north,  and  the  Baptists  were 
just  beginning  in  the  west  when  the  Ke volution 
broke  out." 

To  this  Scotch-Irish  contingent,  is  largely  due 
American  liberty  and  independence.  The  Mech- 
lenburg  declaration  was  drafted  by  these  Scotch- 
Irish  Presbyterians  more  than  a  year  (May 
20,  17Y4)  before  the  American  Declaration  which 
was  modelled  by  Thomas  Jefferson  after  Mechlen- 
burg.  The  section  which  gave  birth  to  this  Scotch- 
Irish  declaration  was  known  and  dreaded  by  the 
British  as  "  the  hornet's  nest."  Thomas  "Watson, 
the  new  and  brilliant  historian  of  the  South,  ar- 
gues adroitly  and  forcibly  that  the  battle  of  King's 
Mountain,  fought  by  these  same  Scotch-Irish 
Presbyterians,  was  the  decisive  battle  of  the 
Revolution. 

Their  descendants  still  occupy  their  mountain 
home,  and  like  the  gulf  stream,  a  distinct  river  in 
the  midst  of  the  sea,  these  Highlanders  have  kept 
themselves  aloof  from  the  rest  of  the  country,  a 
distinct  race  of  people.     Immigration  flowing  in 


Mountaineers  95 

from  all  nationalities  has  corrupted  the  purity  of 
our  Anglo-Saxon  stock,  but  immigration  has  never 
touched  the  life  of  the  mountaineer.  These  iso- 
lated mountaineers  are  the  best  Anglo-Saxon  stock, 
of  the  blood  and  tradition  of  heroes,  "  the  only 
portion  of  our  population  that  retains  pure  and  un- 
defiled  the  Americanism  of  Colonial  times."  At 
the  present  time  they  are  divided  into  two  sepa- 
rate classes  as  distinct  from  each  other  as  they  are 
from  Americans.  The  higher  type  occupy  the 
fertile  valleys  along  the  banks  of  beautiful  streams 
and  broad  rivers.  These  are  the  intelligent,  culti- 
vated and  educated  people  who  will  compare  fa- 
vorably with  any  section  of  the  world.  Abraham 
Lincoln,  Andrew  Jackson  and  Zeb.  Yance  are 
often  classified  among  mountaineers  as  indicating 
the  possibility  of  our  mountain  boys,  but  they 
were  not  typical  mountaineers.  They  are  but 
specimens  of  a  large  class  who  have  risen  to  emi- 
nence from  the  mountain  region.  The  typical 
mountaineer  occupies  his  rude  cabin  on  mountain- 
side or  sequestered  cove  without  associations  with 
the  outside  world,  with  no  advantages  of  learning 
and  no  opportunities  of  improvement,  without 
ambition  in  life,  leading  an  aimless,  careless,  thrift- 
less existence,  in  attainments  and  character  on  a 
level  with  the  cracker  of  the  backwoods,  and  the 
factory  element  of  towns. 

His  home  is  a  one-room  log  hut,  fifteen  by 
twenty  feet,  with  a  door  and  no  windows.  His 
family  is  usually  large  but  accommodates  itself  to 
circumstances,  living,  cooking,  eating,  sleeping  in 


96  At  Our  Own  Door 

this  room  which  serves  as  kitchen,  parlor  and  bed- 
room. Extreme  poverty  is  manifested  everywhere, 
due  to  hard  conditions,  barren  soil  and  innate  lazi- 
ness. The  family  wants  are  but  few  and  their 
taste  simple.  They  literally  "  take  no  thought  for 
the  morrow  " — or  anything  else.  Their  garments 
are  scarce  in  number  and  coarse  in  fabric,  the 
product  of  their  own  rude  looms.  Their  furniture, 
consisting  of  stools,  chairs,  table  and  bed,  is 
carved  out  of  the  forest  by  their  rude  implements. 
They  cultivate  no  land  except  small  patches  of 
corn  and  raise  ordinarily  fine  apples  from  their 
small  orchards.  If  they  could  produce  larger 
crops,  they  would  be  confronted  by  the  further 
difficulty  of  inaccessible  markets.  They  have  no 
means  of  transportation,  except  the  ox-cart.  By 
reason  of  these  hard  conditions,  they  justify  them- 
selves in  illicit  distilling,  which  necessitates  a  large 
force  of  revenue  officers  for  raiding  these  stills, 
and  breaking  up  their  miserable  means  of  turning 
their  corn  and  apples  into  a  little  cash.  These 
mountain  "  moonshiners  "  and  the  government  are 
always  at  war.  A  revenue  officer's  life  is  not  as 
safe  among  them  as  a  wild  beast ;  and  they  shoot 
one  with  as  little  compunction  of  conscience  as  the 
other.  They  pride  themselves  upon  their  honesty, 
locks  and  bars  having  no  place  among  them ;  but 
they  have  but  little  regard  for  the  marriage  tie, 
and  illegitimacy  is  not  considered  a  special  dis- 
grace. Family  feuds  are  a  legacy  from  sire  to 
son,  and  blood  is  the  only  atonement  for  blood. 
"Bloody  Breathitt"  County,  Kentucky,  presents 


Mountaineers  97 

the  world  with  the  spectacle,  at  this  writing,  of 
soldiers  guarding  a  witness,  while  he  gives  his 
testimony ;  and  the  feuds  of  the  Hatfields  and  the 
McCoys  have  lasted  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury, resulting  in  dozens  of  murders,  and  have  now 
attained  a  national  reputation. 

Eev.  E.  Mac  Davis,  who  boasts  of  being  "  one 
of  them  "  writes  graphically  and  interestingly  of 
these  people :  "  There  has  taken  place  in  the  re- 
mote mountains  of  the  South  what  takes  place  in 
remote  mountains  everywhere,  always — a  dam- 
ming up  of  the  stream  of  humanity  and  the  gath- 
ering of  that  stream  into  pools.  These  pools,  be- 
cause they  have  no  outlet,  give  off  their  freshness 
and  precipitate  their  salts.  The  remote  moun- 
taineers are  but  the  Flotsam  and  Jetsam  on  the 
stream  of  society ;  rather  they  are  chips  and  bub- 
bles on  the  surface  of  a  great  inland  dead  sea  of 
salt.  Like  chips  and  bubbles  they  float  round  and 
round  in  slow  circles,  narrow  and  yet  more  nar- 
row, moving,  but  never  advancing.     .     .     . 

They  are  in  a  deeper  sleep  than  ever  Kip  Van 
Winkle  was.  They  have  bathed  themselves  in  the 
river  Lethe,  and  are  unmindful  of  the  progress  of 
civilization.  .  .  .  Their  minds  are  as  unruffled 
as  a  millpond — as  stagnant,  too.  They  have 
neither  envy  nor  ambition.  Their  case  is  one  of 
arrested  development. 

In  the  great  cities  one-tenth  of  the  people  is  said 
to  be  submerged ;  in  the  mountain  coves,  nine- 
tenths  of  the  people  have  not  yet  emerged.  They 
are  not  submerged  in  the  sediment  of  the  stream  of 


98  At  Our  Own  Door 

civilization,  as  the  "Eastside  Whitechapel  Folk 
are."  On  the  contrary,  their  vices  are  not  ab- 
normal, their  virtues  are  not  exotic.  They  have 
not  deteriorated,  nor  degenerated.  They  have  not 
reverted  to  original  types.  They  are  the  original 
types  ;  somewhat  worn  and  defaced,  but  the  original 
types ;  they  are  neither  Liliputians  nor  Brobding- 
nagians;  they  are  nature's  undeveloped  chil- 
dren.    .     .     . 

'Sons  and  Daughters  of  the  Revolution,'  they 
have  lost  their  family  record  and  know  not  to  boast. 
They  are  blind  to  their  glorious  inheritance  of 
truth.  They  have  lost  their  inheritance  of  char- 
acter. Themselves  white  men,  they  too  have  be- 
come the  White  Man's  Burden — the  element  in  the 
south  most  important  to  be  reached.  They  need 
to  be  reached.  They  can  be  reached  by  multiplied 
schools  and  added  churches — by  an  influx  of  disci- 
plined teachers  and  of  educated  preachers. 

The  mountaineer  lives  at  home,  seldom  ventur- 
ing beyond  his  native  vale,  and  has  but  little  busi- 
ness with  the  outside  world.  One  county  has  but 
little  more  communication  with  its  next  neighbor 
than  the  Congo  Free  State  has  with  Uganda.  One 
reason  of  this  is  the  fact  that  no  school  exists  to 
train  the  mind  and  inspire  any  desire  for  knowledge 
of  that  which  lies  beyond  the  next  mountain 
ridge. 

The  poverty  of  the  country  allows  little  pro- 
vision for  a  public  school  system.  A  school  levy 
on  the  taxable  property  of  the  mountain  region 
would  not  bring  suJQBcient  funds  to  keep  the  school 


Mountaineers  99 

in  operation  even  with  indifferent  and  poorly  paid 
teachers  for  more  than  two  months  in  the  year. 
The  war  impoverished  the  South,  and  whilst  it  has 
now  recovered  and  is  building  up  a  school  system 
in  most  places,  nothing  in  comparison  has  been 
done  to  alleviate  the  ignorance  of  the  mountaineer. 
According  to  President  Dabney,  "The  average 
child,  whites  and  blacks  together,  who  attend 
school  at  all  stops  with  the  third  grade.  This 
means  that  the  average  citizen  in  the  South  gets 
only  three  years  of  schooling  in  his  whole  life. 


AVEEAGES. 

Years  in 
school 

Value  school 
property 

Salary  of 
teacher 

Days  in 
school  year 

Ami. 
expended 
perpupil 

N.  C. 

2.6 

$180 

$23.36 

70.8 

$4.34 

s.  c. 

2.5 

178 

23,20 

88.4 

4.44 

Ala. 

2.4 

212 

27.50 

78.3 

3.10 

Ga. 

525 

27.00 

112.0 

6.64 

"  In  other  words,  in  these  states,  in  schoolhouses 
costing  an  average  of  $276  each,  under  teachers 
receiving  the  average  salary  of  $25  per  month,  we 
are  giving  the  children  in  actual  attendance  five 
cents  worth  of  schooling  a  day  for  eighty-seven 
days  in  the  year." 

If  this  is  the  average  for  the  Carolinas,  Georgia 
and  Alabama  as  States,  who  can  estimate  the  edu- 
cational disadvantages  of  the  mountain  region  ? 
Northern  people  have  poured  out  their  money  into 
the  South  for  the  education  of  the  negro,  and  he 
is  allowed  to  share  in  the  funds  raised  by  the  white 
people  of  the  South  as  they  have  taxed  their  prop- 
erty for  public  schools.    Ko  money  in  comparison 


lOO  At  Our  Own  Door 

comes  South  for  the  education  of  the  mountain 
whites,  and  no  taxable  property  in  the  South  pro- 
vides more  than  a  pittance  for  his  education.  As 
a  consequence,  the  average  negro  in  the  country 
enjoys  quadruple  advantages  from  an  educational 
standpoint  over  the  descendants  of  the  Scotch-Irish 
in  the  mountains.  Even  this  does  not  fully  enum- 
erate and  reveal  the  disadvantages  of  the  "  child 
of  the  mountains,"  who  has  also  to  contend  with 
Ignorant  parents,  ready  to  take  the  child  out  of 
school  on  any  pretext  or  send  him  to  the  field  to 
assist  in  the  family  support. 

"  It  were  easy  to  picture  homes  that  would  make 
the  heart  of  Christian  womanhood  ache  with  un- 
utterable sorrow  and  pity  ;  schools  that  are  little 
more  than  the  name  might  be  described  in  truthful 
detail ;  communities  where  the  homely  virtues  that 
are  the  part  of  the  Anglo-Saxon's  birthright  have 
been  overgrown  by  lust  and  sin,  are  not  unknown 
in  the  Southern  Mountains — or  anywhere  else  on 
this  broad  continent  of  ours.  But  all  that  is  re- 
quired to  show  the  absolute  necessity  for  help  from 
outside  sources,  given  in  the  spirit  of  Christian  love 
and  brotherly  kindness,  can  easily  be  imagined  by 
those  whose  hearts  are  tuned  to  the  cry  of  the 
helpless.  The  free-handed,  open-hearted  South,  the 
fortunate,  prosperous  North — each  must  help  ac- 
cording to  his  ability,  until  the  glad  day  dawns 
when  '  the  mountain  of  the  Lord's  house  shall  be 
established  in  the  top  of  the  mountains ' "  (Under 

yOur  Flag). 
Many  of  these  mountain  children  are  most  eager 


Mountaineers  loi 

to  learn.  It  is  not  uncommon  for  a  boy  to  walk 
from  five  to  seven  miles  daily  to  school,  and  others 
will  go  barefoot  through  snow  and  ice.  Miss 
Guernsey  quotes  from  The  Christian  Endeavor 
World  the  following  pathetic  incident  of  one  of 
nature's  children : 

"  A  young  man  entered  a  college  oflBce,  and, 
touching  the  president's  arm,  asked  in  a  peculiar 
mountain  brogue,  'Be  ye  the  man  who  sells 
larnin'?'  Before  the  president  could  reply,  he 
asked  again,  '  Look  here,  mister,  do  you  uns  run 
this  here  thing  ? ' 

"  The  president  replied,  *  Yes,  when  the  thing  is 
not  running  me.     What  can  I  do  for  you  ? ' 

"'Heaps,'  was  the  only  reply.  Then,  after  a 
pause,  the  lad  said :  '  I  has  hearn  that  you  uns 
educate  poor  boys  here,  and  bein'  as  I  am  poor, 
thought  I'd  come  and  see  if  it  wus  so.     Do  ye  ? ' 

"  The  president  replied  that  poor  boys  attended 
the  college,  but  that  it  took  money  to  provide  for 
them  ;  that  they  were  expected  to  pay  something. 
The  boy  was  greatly  troubled. 

" '  Have  you  anything  to  pay  for  your  food  and 
lodging  ?  '  asked  the  president. 

" '  Yas,  sir,'  was  the  reply, '  I  has  a  little  spotted 
steer  ;  and  if  you  uns  will  let  me,  I'll  stay  wid  ye 
till  I  lam  him  up.' 

"  Such  persistence  generally  carries  its  point,  and 
the  lad  remained,  and  the  little  steer  lasted  for 
years.  The  president's  closing  comment  upon  the 
incident  is  this :  '  I  have  had  the  pleasure  of  sit- 
ting in  the  pew  while  I  listened  to  my  boy,  now  a 


102  At  Our  Own  Door 

young  man,  as  he  preached  the  glad  tidings  of 
salvation.     Does  it  pay  to  help  such  boys  ? '  " 

If  these  people  were  originally  Scotch-Irish 
Presbyterians,  has  the  Presbyterian  Church  no  re- 
sponsibility for  their  condition  to-day  ?  Is  the 
Presbyterian  Church  under  any  special  obligation 
to  their  descendants?  Is  there  any  remedy  for 
these  neglected  people,  who  are  stranded  among 
the  mountains  ?    "  Is  there  no  balm  in  Gilead  ?  " 

Dr.  Guerrant  says  :  "  Here  is  our  Jerusalem  : 
Americans,  Virginians,  Kentuckians,  Tennesseans 
and  North  Carolinians,  the  children  of  the  hills ;  our 
neighbors  /  our  kith  and  kin.  Begin  with  them, 
and  save  them,  and  let  them  help  us  save  the 
world.  We  believe  in  foreign  missions,  but  we 
also  believe  in  beginning  at  Jerusalem.  These  are 
*  heathen  at  our  doors.'  Their  souls  are  worth  as 
much  as  others.  They  are  more  easily  reached. 
It  costs  less  than  half  to  reach  them.  The  results 
are  quicker,  because  their  language  is  our  own ; 
their  history,  tradition,  ancestry,  the  same  as  our 
own.  The  consequences  of  their  conversion  are 
greater.  They  will  furnish  the  teachers,  ministers 
and  missionaries  to  the  heathen  abroad." 

They  are  as  truly  without  the  Gospel,  as  if  they 
lived  in  the  heart  of  the  dark  continent. 

"  If  you  cannot  cross  the  ocean  and  the  heathen  lands  explore, 
You  can  find  the  heathen  nearer,  you  can  help  them  at  your 
door  "  — 

in  the  slums  of  the  city  and  in  the  cabins  of  the 
mountains. 


/ 


Mountaineers  103 

Some  noble  philanthropists  are  already  at  work 
on  the  problem  of  the  mountains,  and  their  remedy- 
is  education  ;  and  the  "  Soul  winner's  Association  " 
has  entered  the  field.     It  may  be  from  lack  of 
ample  funds,  but  nothing  yet  has  been  projected 
on  a  sufficient  scale  to  do  more  than  touch  the 
outer  edges  of  the  problem.     Education  will  re- 
lieve ignorance  and  elevate  in  the  scale  of  intelli- 
gence, but  it  will  not  regenerate  society.     It  is  a 
debatable  question  whether  mere  literary  educa- 
tion improves  morality.     The  colored  population 
is  far  better  educated  to-day  than  at  the  close  of 
the  war,  but  Ex-President  Cleveland  in  a  recent 
address  expresses  scepticism  as  to  its  improvement 
in  morality.     Thoughtful  people  in  the  South,  who 
are  in  position  to  know,  fully  endorse  his  con- 
clusions.    Summer  schools  will  not  even  meet  the 
case  of  the  mountaineer  from  an  educational  stand- 
point.    Noble  Christian  people  may  educate  and 
even  teach  these  children  the  Bible  and  funda- 
mental principles  of  morality  and  religion,  which 
is  a  step  in  the  right  direction,  but  unless  the  or- 
ganized church  is  planted  and  maintained  near  by, 
most  of  the  fish  gathered  in  the  school-net  will 
escape  again  to  the  great  sea  of  unregenerate  hu- 
manity. 

If  success  is  ever  to  crown  our  efforts  in  win- 
ning these  souls  and  reclaiming  these  people  lost 
among  the  mountains,  it  will  be  along  the  lines  of 
industrial  and  Christian  schools,  alwaijs  in  connec- 
tion with  the  Church. 

Money  is  wasted  from  a  Christian  standpoint, 


104  A^  ^^i"  ^wn  Door 

that  does  not  ally  itself  with  the  Gospel ;  and  the 
Gospel,  according  to  the  appointment  of  Christ, 
needs  always  a  church  to  propagate  it. 

The  Northern  Presbyterian  Church  is  doing 
noble  work  in  this  section,  as  appears  from  Doyle's 
"  Presbyterian  Home  Missions  "  :  "  Presbyterian 
missionary  work  among  the  mountain  people  of 
the  South  was  begun  in  1879.  The  first  mission 
school  was  '  Whitehall  Seminary.'  It  was  estab- 
lished near  Concord,  N.  C,  and  Miss  Frances  E. 
Ufford  was  the  first  teacher. 

"  From  that  beginning  the  work  has  grown  until 
it  extends  over  the  mountain  regions  of  the  four 
States  of  North  Carolina,  Tennessee,  Kentucky 
and  West  Virginia.  There  are  to-day,  as  a  result 
of  the  Home  Board's  work,  thirty-one  churches, 
1,378  church  members,  seventy-six  Sunday-schools, 
6,172  Sunday-school  scholars,  thirty-seven  mission 
schools,  one  hundred  and  eight  mission  school-teach- 
ers, 3,000  pupils,  twenty-one  ministers  and  sixteen 
Bible  readers.  The  principal  agencies  in  advanc- 
ing missions  have  been  churches,  mission  schools. 
Sabbath-schools  and  Bible  readers.  The  churches 
with  attendant  ministers,  have  been  established  as 
rapidly  as  the  means  would  allow." 

The  Southern  Presbyterian  Church  is  also  doing 
good  work  in  this  field.  It  exceeds  the  Northern 
Church  in  number  of  churches  and  members,  but 
is  behind  in  Christian  schools.  It  is  impossible  to 
give  detail  of  statistics,  because  the  work  of  the 
Southern  Church  is  not  directly  under  the  Execu- 
tive Committee,  but  is  done  by  various  presby- 


Mountaineers  105 

teries  and  synods,  but  principally  by  the  "  Synod- 
ical  Evangelistic  Committee  of  Kentucky,"  Rev.  W. 
C.  Clark,  D.  D.,  chairman,  Augusta,  Kentucky ; 
and  that  of  North  Carolina,  Rev.  E.  E.  Gillespie, 
superintendent,  Greensboro,  N.  C. 

The  Assembly's  Committee  of  Home  Missions 
is  just  entering  this  field,  having  recently  ap- 
propriated about  $5,000  to  begin  the  work  of 
Christian  and  industrial  schools,  among  the  moun- 
taineers. 

Among  our  institutions.  King  College  at  Bristol, 
Tennessee,  has  done  grand  v^ork  among  those  de- 
scribed as  the  better  class.  For  its  means,  no 
college  ever  did  better  work,  as  may  be  judged  by 
the  fact  that  it  gave  to  the  Church  such  men  as 
Dr.  R.  C.  Reed,  Dr.  T.  M.  McConnell,  Dr.  S.  R. 
Preston,  Dr.  J.  W.  Rogan,  Dr.  J.  I.  Vance  and 
others  equally  useful,  under  the  instruction  of  such 
able  teachers  as  Dr.  J.  D.  Tadlock  and  Dr.  Jas. 
Albert  Wallace. 

Among  schools  doing  splendid  service  for  the 
more  typical  mountaineer  is  Lees-McRae  Institute, 
described  by  Rev.  F.  B.  Converse,  D.  D. : 

"  It  was  our  privilege  to  visit  the  Lees-McRae 
Institute,  and  we  were  surprised  and  gratified  at 
what  has  been  and  is  being  accomplished  at  this 
point.  It  is  located  at  Banner  Elk,  in  one  of  the 
most  beautiful  and  most  elevated  valleys,  having 
an  altitude  of  about  4,300  feet,  and  partly  sur- 
rounded by  mountain  ranges  one  or  two  thousand 
feet  higher.  The  importance  of  a  good  school  was 
appreciated  by  the  evangelists,  and  an  excellent 


io6  At  Our  Own  Door 

boarding  and  day  school,  under  the  control  of  the 
Presbytery  of  Concord,  has  been  built  up  within 
the  last  three  or  four  years  by  Rev.  Edgar  Tufts 
and  Rev.  J.  P.  Hall.  The  work  that  has  been  ac- 
complished with  the  limited  means  at  their 
command  is  simply  marvellous.  Commenced  in  a 
small  way,  it  has  gradually  grown  until  at  the  last 
session  there  were  thirty  boarders  and  fifty-five 
day  scholars — eighty-five  in  all.  Some  of  the  girls 
came  forty  miles  across  the  mountains  in  road 
wagons — a  two  days'  journey  for  their  fathers  to 
bring  them,  and  another  two  days'  drive  returning 
home.  It  is  a  banner  school  in  reference  to  the 
Shorter  Catechism.  Last  year  the  Christian  Oh- 
server  sent  diplomas  to  twenty-one  of  those 
children  who  had  memorized  the  Shorter  Cate- 
chism, and  sixteen  the  previous  year,  besides 
certificates  to  those  who  had  committed  to  memory 
the  Child's  Catechisna. 

"  It  is  a  mistake  to  picture  the  mountain  children 
as  an  inferior  class.  Some  of  them  are  remark- 
ably bright.  A  prize  was  offered  to  the  one  who 
should  first  learn  the  "Westminster  Catechism  per- 
fectly. Two  of  the  girls  set  resolutely  to  work 
and  recited  it  without  a  mistake  within  a  week — 
one  of  them  on  the  fifth  day  after  she  had  com- 
menced it.  A  girl  who  can  and  will,  in  addition 
to  her  school  studies  and  household  duties — for 
the  girls  here  are  industrially  trained  as  well  as  in 
books — learn  the  104  answers  in  the  catechism 
within  a  week,  is  not  deficient  either  in  intellectual 
power  or  ambition,  or  pluck.     It  is  a  good  school, 


Mountaineers  107 

fitting  the  boys  for  college  and  giving  the  girls 
equal  training.  One  of  its  students  is  now  in  col- 
lege with  the  ministry  in  view.  Board  and  tuition 
are  furnished  to  the  mountain  children  who  are 
able  to  pay,  at  a  price  lower  than  we  would  sup- 
pose was  possible ;  to  others  board  and  tuition  have 
been  given  free. 

"  While  this  was  being  done,  it  was  necessary  to 
erect  buildings  for  the  accommodation  of  the  in- 
creasing numbers.  Twenty  acres  of  land,  a  most 
beautiful  site  for  such  an  institution,  was  secured. 
A  dormitory  for  the  girls,  a  three  story  building, 
containing  twenty-two  rooms,  has  been  erected. 
The  view  from  the  observatory  on  top  of  this 
building,  is  one  of  surpassing  beauty.  A  school 
building  equally  large  stands  on  one  side,  and  the 
Presbyterian  church  on  the  other.  Besides  this, 
there  is  a  fourth  building  of  two  rooms,  for  class 
rooms.  The  amount  of  money  which  has  been 
contributed  by  Presbyterians  for  this  work  is  ex- 
ceedingly small,  out  of  all  proportion  to  the  work 
accomplished.  The  total  amount  of  cash  that  has 
passed  through  Mr.  Tuft's  hands  during  the  last 
three  years,  is  only  about  $5,000.     .     .     . 

"  This  institution  has  been  co-educational.  But 
the  two  departments  are  to  be  separated,  and  the 
school  for  boys  located  in  an  adjoining  county — 
that  at  Banner  Elk  being  for  girls  only." 

Space  forbids  an  account  of  other  institutions. 
These  two  are  given  as  specimens  of  what  has 
been  done  by  Presbyterians,  and  what  ought  to  be 
carried  on  more  earnestly  on  a  still  larger  scale. 


io8  At  Our  Own  Door 

In  the  mountains  the  Presbyterian  church  has  a 
magnificent  field  for  benevolent  and  missionary 
operation,  but  it  is  not  without  its  difficulties. 
Entrenched  among  the  mountains,  almost  inac- 
cessible, these  unfortunate  people  are  fortified 
behind  more  formidable  mountains  of  ignorance 
and  prejudice.  These  obstacles  will  not  easily 
yield,  nor  at  once.  The  uneducated  preacher  of 
the  "  rarin'  and  rantin'  "type  watches  jealously  his 
own  peculiar  province.  He  appeals  to  the  preju- 
dice of  the  ignorant  and  makes  it  difficult  for  an 
educated  minister  to  get  the  ear  of  the  people  in 
many  communities.  Mormon  elders  get  in  some 
of  their  best  work  among  the  mountaineers,  induc^ 
ing  many  to  emigrate  to  Utah,  and  in  some 
instances  they  have  established  churches.  They 
have  recently  established  their  headquarters  at 
Chattanooga,  Tenn.,  and  have  sent  into  these 
mountains  hundreds  of  their  trained  emissaries  to 
"  lead  captive  silly  women  "  and  these  simple  peo- 
ple. If  these  people  are  to  be  reached  by  the 
gospel  to  any  extent,  it  must  be  by  means  of  earnest 
consecrated  men,  giving  themselves  to  it  as  their 
life-work.  If  they  volunteer  to  live  among  the 
filth  and  abominations  of  loathsome,  heathen 
cities,  why  should  not  some  be  willing  to  give  a 
whole  life  to  our  own  heathen  ? 

It  is  sometimes  said  that  the  Church  in  the  early 
days  of  Christianity  was  "  accredited  "  b}'^  ability 
to  work  miracles.  Some  go  so  far  as  to  affirm 
that  the  Church  again  needs  to  be  accredited 
among  men,  and  prove  her  divine  character  by 


Mountaineers  1 09 

healing  the  sick,  etc.  Believers  in  faith  cures  are 
constantly  asking,  "  who  said  the  days  of  miracles 
are  past  ?  "  Men  are  "  still  seeking  after  a  sign." 
"  Except  ye  see  signs  and  wonders,  ye  will  not  be- 
lieve." 

The  Church  must  accredit  herself !  Christ  and 
the  Apostles,  by  their  miracles,  accredited  them- 
selves. They  demonstrated  their  divine  commis- 
sions. So  must  the  Church  to-day.  What  was, 
in  His  own  judgment,  the  climax  of  Christ's  grand- 
est works  ?  If  John  the  Baptist  asked  for  proofs 
of  His  Messiahship,  His  response  was,  "  Go  tell 
John  the  sick  are  healed."  If  that  is  not  sufficient, 
tell  him,  "  The  blind  receive  their  sight."  Give 
even  a  greater  sign,  "The  dead  are  raised  up." 
But  the  climax  of  all  is,  "  The  poor  have  the  gospel 
preached  unto  them."  This  is  the  only  one  of 
His  greatest  works  which  remains  to-day  literally 
unchanged.  The  Church  can  no  longer  raise  the 
dead.  But  she  can  reproduce  still  the  greatest  of 
Christ's  works  on  a  grander  scale.  The  Church 
can  prove  her  divinity,  to  the  world,  by  "  preach- 
ing the  gospel  to  the  poor." 

Is  this  evidence  of  Christliness  and  Christianity 
sufficient  ?  If  she  will  give  this  "  sign  "  to  the 
world,  it  will  be  more  potent  than  healing  the 
sick  or  raising  the  dead !  Kaising  the  dead  might 
startle  one  community,  and  the  fact  would  be  dis- 
puted in  the  next  community.  Unbelief  is  not 
cured  by  raising  the  dead.  "If  they  hear  not 
Moses  and  the  prophets,  neither  will  they  be  per- 
suaded, though  one  rose  from  the  dead." 


no  At  Our  Own  Door 

If  the  Church  wants  to  cure  the  world's  scepti- 
cism and  allay  her  own  misgivings,  let  her  engage 
in  a  great  campaign  of  home  missions  before  the 
eyes  of  men.  Let  earnest  consecrated  men  and 
women  in  the  self-sacrificing  spirit  of  Christ  go  in 
great  numbers  to  reclaim  the  slums,  and  scatter 
themselves  in  force  throughout  the  mountain 
regions.  Let  the  Church  cease  "  Playing  at  Mis- 
sions," but  get  down  to  work.  Let  wealthy  Chris- 
tians furnish  the  means  as  in  the  early  days  of 
Christianity  when  whole  fortunes  were  laid  at  the 
apostles'  feet.  Let  the  Church  reproduce  the 
spirit  of  Christ ;  and  the  world  will  accept  such 
testimony  in  evidence  of  Christianity.  What  the 
world  demands  to-day  is  more  home  missionary 
enterprise  and  effort.  Men  of  the  world  believe 
foreign  mission  work  is  the  result  of  sentiment ;  it 
does  not  appeal  to  their  judgment.  They  are  ask- 
ing why  men  and  money  are  lavished  on  Africa 
whilst  millions  of  negroes  are  neglected  at  our  very 
doors ;  why  such  zeal  for  China,  Japan  and  India, 
whilst  the  slums  and  mountains  are  forgotten. 
The  Church  is  rich  enough  to  accept  this  challenge 
of  the  world.  Without  withholding  a  dollar  or 
withdrawing  a  man  from  the  foreign  field,  she  can 
take  hold  of  the  Avork  at  home  on  an  immense 
scale.  A  great  home  mission  revival  of  "  Preach- 
ing the  Gospel  to  the  poor "  would  meet  the  ob- 
jection to  foreign  missions,  and  at  the  same  time, 
cure  the  world's  scepticism.  By  her  great  organ- 
ized charities,  the  Church  proves  herself  humane. 
Now,  by  her  great  missionary  effort  in  "  Preach- 


Mountaineers  1 1 1 

ing  the  gospel  to  the  poor,"  let  her  prove  herself 
divine  ! 

The  slums,  the  mountains  and  the  great  desti- 
tute West  invite  the  experiment,  and  await  the 
demonstration ! 


V 

THE  WHITE  MAN'S  BURDEN 

By  Rev,  D.  Clay  Lilly,  D.  D.,  former  Secretary  of  Colored 
Evangelization.' 

In  this  brief  account  of  the  negro,  as  we  have 
known  him  in  the  South,  let  it  be  understood  that 
when  I  use  the  term,  negro,  it  does  not  stand  for 
every  individual  of  the  race — but  only  for  the  race 
considered  in  a  general  way. 

There  are  as  many  kinds  of  negroes  as  there  are 
of  other  races — "  good,  bad  and  indifferent "  is  a 
classification  that  befits  them  as  it  does  other  peo- 
ples. The  fact  which  calls  for  our  sympathy  and 
assistance  is,  that  the  good  class  is  relatively 
small — and  the  bad  and  indifferent  largely  in  the 
majority. 

This  good  class  is  intelligent,  progressive  and 
resourceful.  Its  religion  is  not  a  sham.  Its  edu- 
cation has  not  spoiled  it,  and  its  devotion  to  duty 
is  not  inspired  by  the  "  loaves  and  fishes."  Its 
ideals  are  good — its  social  standards  high,  and  its 
life  wholesome  and  elevating.  It  has  been  lifted 
from  heathen  darkness  to  its  present  attainments 
by  the  power  of  the  grace  of  God.  If  all  Amer- 
ican negroes  were  of  this  class,  there  would  be  no 
"  Negro  Problem  "  and  no  reason  for  this  chapter 

'  Written  at  the  request  of  the  author. 

112 


The  White  Man's  Burden  1 13 

in  a  volume  on  home  missions.  But  this  class  is 
small,  as  all  Southern  people  know,  and  the  eight 
or  nine  millions  of  them  in  the  Southern  States 
are  principally  indifferent  or  bad.  It  is  not  that 
they  have  suddenly  or  recently  become  so.  Nor 
that  the  experience  of  their  ancestors  in  American 
slavery,  is  the  source  of  their  shortcomings,  indus- 
trially, intellectually,  morally  and  spiritually. 
But  if  any  evolutionary  process  is  responsible  for 
it,  it  is  the  long,  long  downward  course  in  sin  and 
degradation  during  the  unnumbered  centuries  of 
their  separation  from  the  rest  of  the  world  and 
their  isolation  in  the  jungle.  It  does  not  require 
a  long  period  for  a  family  to  deteriorate,  if  left  to 
itself  under  conditions  which  cut  it  off  from  all 
the  light  and  progress  of  the  world — and  perhaps 
that  branch  of  the  human  race  which  retired  into 
the  wilds  of  the  Dark  Continent  and  shut  itself 
out  from  the  light  of  civilization,  went  constantly 
from  bad  to  worse,  being  for  centuries  practically 
untouched  by  explorer,  merchant  or  missionary. 
And  strange  as  it  may  seem,  it  was  the  cruel  lash 
of  the  slave  trader,  which  touched  him  for  good, 
and  the  overcrowded  slave  ships,  which  bore  him 
out  from  intellectual  and  moral  stupefaction,  to 
touch  again  the  life  and  onward  go  of  the  throb- 
bing, stressful  world.  I  am  no  apologist  for  slav- 
ery. It  was  the  overruling  providence  of  God 
bringing  good  from  evil.  Later,  emancipation 
clothed  him  with  citizenship  and  threw  him  on  his 
own  resources.  And  now  behold  the  man,  become 
a  weakling  in  all  the  elements  of  manhood,  except 


114  ^^  ^^^  Own  Door 

the  physical,  brought  back  into  the  arena  to  con- 
tend with  those  who  through  the  ages  have  waxed 
strong  by  the  use  of  all  their  strength. 

Slavery  was  the  only  door  which  could  have 
ever  admitted  him  into  the  place  where  he  should 
find  use  for  his  powers,  and  by  no  other  way 
could  he  have  entered  progressive  America 
There  was  but  one  way  in — there  is  no  way  out. 
He  is  here  to  stay.  Deportation,  colonization, 
reservation  have  all  been  advocated  by  sensible 
men,  but  never  seriously  considered  by  the  south- 
ern people,  white  or  black. 

It  will  be  best  for  all  parties  if  the  white 
man,  strong  and  dominant,  will  look  seriously  and 
sympathetically  at  the  weaker  and  dependent 
colored  man,  and  seeing  him  just  as  he  is,  intel- 
ligently set  about  aiding  him. 

Those  best  acquainted  with  the  negro,  see  him 
to  be  possessed  with  the  following  characteristics : 

Physically  : 

He  is  possessed  with  a  constitutional  languor. 
He  is  naturally  sedentary  and  inactive.  He  works 
from  necessity  and  not  from  inspiration.  Karely 
does  anything  else  than  daily  bread  hold  him  to 
his  work;  also  is  he  below  par  as  to  physical 
accuracy  and  finish.  He  will  "  round  off  the 
corners  "  of  any  task  he  performs.  He  will  find 
the  easy  way.  If  it  is  plowing,  he  will  skim  the 
ground ;  if  it  is  building,  ends  will  not  be  square 
— joints  will  not  be  flush,  uprights  will  not  be 
plumb.     If  it  is  whitewashing  he  will  "splash 


The  White  Man's  Burden  115 

around  "  working  as  if  the  house  were  on  fire  to 
get  through  quickly  and  when  he  is  through,  not 
only  will  the  desired  object  be  whitened,  but 
everything  within  a  reasonable  radius  will  have 
received  a  generous  portion  of  the  wash. 

You  may  set  it  down  as  a  pretty  general  rule, 
that  if  a  man  is  too  languid  to  articulate  cor- 
rectly, he  will  do  everything  else  in  the  same 
slovenly  way. 

Judged  from  the  standpoint  of  efficiency,  he  is 
the  poorest  quality  of  labor  in  this  country. 
From  an  economical  standpoint,  he  is  the  most 
expensive  laborer  one  can  employ.  I  know  land 
which  will  produce  cotton,  corn,  cane  and  tobacco 
— four  of  the  most  profitable  crops  of  the  farm — 
which  can  be  bought  for  five  dollars  per  acre, 
simply  because  negro  labor  will  not  make  it  yield 
up  its  treasures.  If  the  negroes  were  suddenly 
withdrawn  from  the  South  and  colonized  by  them- 
selves elsewhere,  they  could  not  make  a  living  for 
themselves,  which  would  compare  in  comfort  with 
what  they  enjoy  at  present.  If  the  white  people 
should  suddenly  withdraw  from  the  South  to  live 
elsewhere,  the  negroes  could  not  manage  success- 
fully the  country  left  to  them — and  it  would  de- 
crease in  value  from  the  first. 

Had  white  labor  been  employed  in  the  South 
exclusively  from  the  first,  our  cotton  would  never 
have  been  manufactured  in  England — new  or 
old. 

The  negro  has  been  the  "  White  Man's  Burden  " 
here  as  elsewhere — he  has  enjoyed  a  tutelage  under 


ii6  At  Our  Own  Door 

the  white  man.  He  has  been  a  dull  and  costly 
pupil  to  his  teacher.  It  is,  of  course,  true  that 
the  negroes  have  made  much  of  the  wealth  of  the 
South — but  primary  labor  does  this  everywhere 
— and  it  was  during  the  days  of  slavery  when 
negro  labor  was  organized,  controlled  and  di- 
rected in  such  a  way  as  to  make  it  efficient  and 
remunerative,  that  this  was  true  in  the  South.  It 
is  only  true  in  a  very  limited  way  to-day.  It  is  no 
longer  possible  to  organize,  control  or  direct 
negro  labor  so  as  to  make  it  of  good  profit  to  the 
farmer  or  planter.  It  requires  great  patience  and 
forbearance  to  employ  it  at  all.  His  redeeming 
traits  as  a  laborer  (and  I  most  cheerfully  and 
freely  speak  of  them)  are  his  patience  and 
tractabilit}',  his  general  good  humor,  his  strength 
of  body,  and  his  willingness  to  work  long  hours. 
These  are  good  qualities,  and  they  go  far  towards 
relieving  conditions  which  otherwise  would  be  in- 
tolerable. 

Mentally : 

He  is  not  the  equal  of  the  white  man.  I  sup- 
pose ages  of  disuse  of  the  high  powers  of  the  mind 
may  account  for  the  atrophied  condition  of  his 
judgment  and  power  of  analysis  and  synthesis. 

In  early  life  the  negro  gives  evidence  of  good 
mental  power — the  negro  child  will  learn  about  as 
rapidly  as  the  white  child.  But  as  they  advance 
in  life  the  white  intelligence  will  continue  to  ex- 
pand, while  the  negro  will  show  a  case  of 
"  arrested  development."    It  is  next  to  impossible 


The  White  Man's  Burden  1 1 7 

to  teach  the  negro  to  reason  or  judge  or  to  ob- 
serve inductively  or  to  investigate.  And  this  is 
true,  not  because  he  was  for  a  little  while  a  slave 
in  this  country,  but  because  for  long  ages  he  had 
lived  under  conditions  which  made  no  demand 
upon  him  for  such  mental  exercises. 

Likewise,  he  is  deficient  morally.  The  negro 
population  of  the  Southern  States  is,  as  far  as  I 
know,  the  most  criminal  population  living  in  any 
civilized  land — the  negroes  in  the  IS^orthern  States 
alone  being  excepted.  Being  one-third  of  our 
population,  they  commit  three-fourths  of  our 
crimes.  That  this  is  not  due  to  any  treatment 
accorded  him  by  Southern  people  is  amply  proven 
by  the  fact  that  he  is  more  criminal  in  the  North 
than  in  the  South.  His  moral  character  is  defi- 
cient. That  which  deters  men  from  crime  is  their 
repugnance  to  it,  rather  than  the  fear  of  the 
penalty  attached  to  it.  The  white  man  is  deterred 
both  by  repugnance  and  penalty.  The  negro  has 
little  but  the  fear  of  penalty  to  restrain  him. 
Any  one  acquainted  with  the  negro  either  in 
America  or  Africa,  knows  that  he  is  not  troubled 
with  a  quick  conscience.  To  be  caught  stealing, 
or  proven  a  liar,  will  fill  most  white  men  of  any 
country  with  shame  and  confusion.  But  it  does 
not  so  eflfect  the  average  negro — it  does  not  ap- 
pear to  him  much  out  of  the  way.  A  grin,  a  duck 
of  the  head,  and  he  scuds  away — to  repeat  the 
break  at  the  first  opportunity. 


ii8  At  Our  Own  Door 

Social  impurity  is  a  rottenness  found  in  all  races, 
but  the  sickening  prevalence  of  it  among  the 
negroes  of  all  countries  is  testified  to  b}''  wit- 
nesses who  are  intelligent,  unbiased  and  well 
informed. 

To  one  who  has  not  lived  in  the  South,  nor 
known  much  of  the  negro  elsewhere,  it  is  surpris- 
ing to  hear  a  Christian  physician  who  has  practiced 
among  them  for  forty  years,  say  that  "  ninety  per 
cent,  of  the  negro  population  is  impure."  But  to 
those  who  know  the  conditions  as  they  are,  the 
statement  is  not  at  all  strange.  I  once  asked  a  man 
of  the  world  what  per  cent,  of  the  negroes  he 
thought  was  impure,  and  he  responded  promptly 
and  emphatically  :  "  All  of  them,  sir,  all."  I  pro- 
test against  this — it  is  not  true.  I  do  not  pretend 
to  name  any  per  cent.  I  know  though,  that  their 
immorality  is  terrible  in  itself,  wasting  their  en- 
ergies, shocking  civilization  and  discouraging  their 
best  friends  and  helpers.  His  racial  conscience  has 
not  been  aroused  to  abhor  such  a  condition.  It  is 
numbed,  it  is  stupefied.  Ages  of  wanton  license 
have  delivered  him  over  to  a  shameless  mind.  He 
is  a  deficient.  I  speak  of  the  race  in  general — I 
have  already  excepted  that  class  which  has  been 
rescued  by  God's  grace,  and  lifted  out  of  the 
mire. 

And,  now,  how  is  this  weakened  man  circum- 
stanced ? 

Commercially,  he  is  in  competition  with  the 
white  man — ordinarily  this  is  a  dangerous  position 
for  any  race  to  occupy — as  the  world's  history 


The  White  Man's  Burden  119 

abundantly  testifies.  But  it  has  been  a  safe  and 
fortunate  place  for  him  in  this  case.  He  is  well 
adapted  to  the  Southern  climate — here  he  multi- 
plies— here  he  enjoys  life.  His  labor  is  always 
marketable  at  a  fair  price — and  he  has  a  good 
chance  to  make  a  living.  There  is  little  or  no  com- 
mercial antagonism  between  the  two  races  in  the 
South — and  you  could  not  with  a  search  warrant 
find  a  negro  who  wants  to  work  six  days  in  the 
week  and  is  willing  to  behave  himself,  who  is  do- 
ing anything  less  than  making  a  living  for  himself 
and  family.  There  is  very  much  less  danger  of 
race  conflicts  than  is  commonly  supposed  by  per- 
sons unacquainted  with  the  actual  conditions. 
"When  it  is  remembered  that  there  are  25,000,000 
of  people — one-third  colored  and  two-thirds  white 
— coming  into  continual  contact  365  days  each 
year,  it  is  only  to  be  expected  that  difiiculties  will 
arise.  But  these  are  not  often  serious  and  are  as 
infrequent  as  one  can  reasonably  expect.  Econom- 
ically, the  negro  is  as  well  and  safely  circumstanced 
as  he  could  be  anywhere  else  in  the  world.  But 
he  exhibits  deficiencies  of  the  most  serious  kind  in 
the  secure  haven  where  the  providence  of  God  has 
sheltered  him — he  has  not  raised  a  standard  of  liv- 
ing in  keeping  with  his  opportunities.  He  has 
lived  among  a  people  who  are  relatively  pure  in 
life — who  are  quiet  and  well-behaved.  He  has  not 
been  largely  influenced  by  this  wholesome  environ- 
ment. Negro  morals,  negro  thought,  and  negro 
character  have  not  been  lifted  up  to  any  great  de- 
gree.    The  negro  quarter  in  every  city  and  town 


120  At  Our  Own  Door 

is  the  place  of  shame  and  violence.  The  Southern 
white  people  are  glad  to  show  respect  to  good 
character  among  the  negroes,  and  do  show  it 
whenever  it  is  manifested  among  them.  There  is 
so  great  a  preponderance  of  the  bad  that  we  do  not 
often  have  an  opportunity  to  evince  it.  There  is 
more  in  the  "  N^egro  Problem  "  than  a  mere  ques- 
tion of  color.  It  is  a  question  of  character  also. 
The  inequality  of  character  must  disappear  before 
the  setting  aside  of  the  color  question  can  be  even 
remotely  considered.  The  only  thing  for  the 
colored  people  now  is  to  arise  and  set  up  their 
social  standards — standards  which  articulate  with 
the  decalogue  and  then  lift  up  their  life  to  these 
standards.  They  have  not  yet  erected  their  stand- 
ards— except  in  the  case  of  the  small  class  which  is 
excepted  in  all  these  general  statements. 

Religiously : 

His  religious  life  has  shown  an  interesting  and 
curious  development.  Without  any  but  the  simplest 
forms  of  religious  worship,  he  has  yet  made  his 
religion  a  formal  thing — Church  membership  has 
had  a  kind  of  social  significance,  and  has  so  been 
sought  by  the  many.  Church  services  are  punctil- 
iously attended.  The  whole  outward  form  of  re- 
ligion has  had  a  rapid  and  showy  development. 
Proportionally,  there  are  probably  as  many  preach- 
ers, churches  and  church  members  among  them  as 
among  the  white  people.  Since  the  whites  have 
been  centuries  attaining  their  present  religious 
condition,  and  the   negroes   only  a  few  decades, 


The  White  Man's  Burden  121 

this  extraordinary  growth  must  be  due  either  to 
great  pentecostal  showers  or  else  to  great  laxity  in 
church  life.  Those  familiar  with  the  case  have  no 
difficulty  in  deciding  which  of  these  two  conditions 
has  prevailed.  Their  growth  has  been  too  rapid 
and  their  standards  too  low,  so  that  religion  does 
not  have  its  true  meaning  among  them.  Their 
leaders  are  too  often  as  blind  leaders  of  the  blind. 
And  yet  the  negroes  are  exceedingly  dependent 
upon  leadership — as  all  ignorant  people  are.  The 
most  disheartening  part  of  this  matter  is  that  they 
seem  to  be  satisfied  with  the  present  sad  condition 
of  religious  life.  Their  conception  seems  to  be 
largely  erroneous  as  to  what  a  Christian  should  be 
and  do. 

These  strictures  are  severe,  but  I  do  not  want  to 
be  severe — I  am  trying  to  tell  just  what  I  believe 
to  be  the  truth  about  the  American  negro.  I 
recognize  him  as  my  fellow-man  and  have  always 
tried  to  be  his  friend  and  helper — I  am  trying  to 
show  that  he  is  in  need  of  help,  that  this  help  must 
be  given  graciously,  patiently  and  perseveringly. 
He  needs  to  be  helped  up  to  a  better  life.  There 
are  many  steps  of  progress  ahead  of  him — if  he 
cares  to  take  them.  But  no  matter  how  many  he 
assays  or  few  may  content  him,  he  will  have  to 
take  the  first  step  first. 

The  First  Step  of  Progress 

He  is  in  the  laboring  class  of  this  country.  He 
cannot  be  advanced  to  any  higher  class  until  he 
has  shown  himself  master  of  the  one  he  is  now  in. 


122  At  Our  Own  Door 

The  great  University  of  Life  passes  none  of  her 
pupils  to  higher  grades  until  they  have  proven 
their  proficiency  in  their  present  standing.  So 
that  whatever  exhortation  may  be  addressed  to 
him,  or  whatever  laws  passed  to  advance  him,  or 
money  spent  to  elevate  him,  he  can  never  reach 
any  higher  plane,  until  he  first  fills  acceptably  the 
place  he  now  occupies.  Not  until  he  has  become 
a  Christian,  reliable  and  efficient  laboring  class, 
can  he  ever  become  anything  more.  He  consti- 
tutes our  primary  labor  supply,  but  it  is  in  too 
large  a  measure  a  malingering,  unreliable,  criminal 
supply — to  say  nothing  of  its  inefficiency  and 
wastefulness.  Until  these  blemishes  are  removed, 
and  the  negro  fills  acceptably  this  position  of  pri- 
mary laborer,  he  need  not  hope  for  any  real  promo- 
tion to  higher  things.  His  first  step  of  progress 
must  be  to  make  conquest  of  the  domain  com- 
mitted to  him  for  the  present.  This  is  the  history 
of  all  development,  whether  of  the  individual  or 
family  or  nation. 

The  First  Great  Need 

But  to  accomplish  this  first  stage  of  progress — 
we  must  strike  at  the  very  centre  of  the  matter, 
viz.:  the  spiritual  life  of  the  negro.  A  great 
moral  reformation,  such  as  has  from  time  to  time 
swept  over  lands  peopled  by  white  races,  must 
reach  the  negroes  of  this  land.  If  asked  the 
greatest  need  of  the  American  negro  to-day,  I 
would  say  :  "  Preachers  of  the  right  kind."  I  do 
not  fail  to  appreciate  the  work  of  the  large  num- 


The  White  Man's  Burden  123 

ber  of  faithful  ministers  who  occupy  so  many  of 
their  pulpits  to-day.  All  honor  to  them.  But 
they,  themselves,  are  keenly  aware  of  the  failings 
of  a  great  part  of  their  ministry  and  know  that, 
too  often,  the  so-called  shepherd  is  a  destroyer 
and  not  a  helper.  The  most  direct  approach  to 
the  spring  of  life  of  a  people  is  through  their 
preachers  of  the  gospel.  If  these  can  be  made 
what  they  should  be,  and  the  gospel  message  is 
sounded  out  by  them,  the  reforms — moral,  social 
and  economic — will  surely  follow.  None  but 
those  who  have  sinned  away  their  day  of  grace 
can  listen  to  the  preaching  of  the  gospel  and  not 
become  better  men  and  women.  And  to  become 
better  men  and  women,  is  to  become  better  cooks, 
laundresses,  wagoners  and  ploughmen,  as  well  as 
better  fathers  and  mothers,  and  thinkers  and 
teachers.  Here  is  the  point  of  attack.  If  the 
fight  is  made  persistently  on  this  line,  the  victory 
is  assured.  If  every  pulpit  among  this  people 
should  be  filled  with  a  pure,  intelligent,  scriptural 
preacher  they  would  speedily  show  great  moral 
advances.  All  this  terrible  past  can  be  undone 
by  the  power  of  the  grace  of  God.  Suppose  that 
this  ministry  should  banish  the  emotionalism, 
pregnant  in  their  worship,  and  be  quick  to  correct 
errors  of  life  by  admonition,  suspension  and  excom- 
munication, and  raise  up  the  standard  of  the  cross, 
as  the  standard  of  daily  life ;  can  any  one  doubt 
the  saving  effect  of  such  a  course,  or  its  ultimate 
triumph  ?  If  the  Christian  home  should  become  a 
prominent  feature  of  their  life,  and  the  children 


124  ^^  ^"^  Own  Door 

be  trained  in  the  love  of  the  Lord  and  encouraged 
to  fill  their  place  in  life  well,  however  humble  it 
may  be,  does  any  one  doubt  the  improvement 
which  would  follow  ? 

The  Second  Great  Need 

The  negro  religious  and  domestic  life  has  been 
largely  developed  from  its  emotional  side  alone. 
It  should  have  its  intellectual  side  awakened.  But 
it  is  difficult  to  do  this  in  their  present  illiterate 
condition.  And  again:  it  is  difficult  to  make 
mere  book  learning  of  advantage  to  them,  so  long 
as  they  are  content  with  their  present  moral  and 
spiritual  condition.  So  that  I  would  say  that 
these  two  great  forces  must  move  together.  The 
second  great  need  of  the  negro  is  for  a  larger 
supply  of  faithful  and  godly  school-teachers. 
Much  has  been  said,  pro  and  con,  on  the  subject  of 
negro  education.  I  think  opposition  to  it  arises 
largely  from  opposition  to  the  methods  of  some 
who  have  undertaken  to  give  help  along  this  line. 
Not  every  kind  of  education  is  good  for  every  kind 
of  person.  To  conceive  of  educating  the  whole 
negro  race  in  the  higher  branches  of  learning  is  as 
foolish  as  it  is  economically  impracticable.  There 
is  no  race  with  such  endowment  that  all  of  its 
people  can  be  highly  educated.  At  present  only 
a  small  per  cent,  of  the  colored  population  need 
the  higher  education.  I  would  say  give  the  whole 
race,  as  soon  as  possible,  an  elementary  education. 
Any  life  should  be  better  and  more  serviceable  for 
knowing  this.     Then,  give  those  who  have  the 


The  White  Man's  Burden  125 

aptitude,  a  higher  grade  of  education,  expanding 
and  enlarging  their  life  and  preparing  them  to  fill 
acceptably  positions  as  preachers,  teachers,  physi- 
cians, etc.  Finally,  give  to  those  who  can  re- 
ceive and  use  it,  the  very  highest  kind  of  training. 
The  negro  race  must  have  leaders  from  its  own 
race — these  can  be  developed  only  by  the  best 
training.  But  let  it  be  emphasized  in  all  these 
kinds  of  training  that  education  prepares  for  more 
and  better  work,  and  not  that  it  ennobles  or  en- 
titles one  to  live  without  work.  It  will  not  do  to 
take  a  weak  people  and  merely  educate  them  in 
books — no  quicker  way  of  their  undoing  could  be 
devised. 

A  school  for  negro  children  and  youth  should 
never  lose  sight  of  the  idea  of  discipline — the  mak- 
ing of  moral  fibre,  the  lifting  up  of  ideals  and  the 
strengthening  of  purpose  are  worth  vastly  more 
than  the  information  gained  from  books.  Cleanli- 
ness, immediate  and  perfect  obedience,  unfailing 
promptness  and  the  utmost  thoroughness  in  detail 
— these  should  be  the  A  B  C  of  the  school  for  ne- 
groes. A  school  that  develops  these  is  a  good 
place  for  any  child  to  be,  but  is  especially  needed 
by  the  negro  child,  because  he  has  small  oppor- 
tunity to  learn  them  elsewhere. 

Industrial  education,  where  faithfully  and  hon- 
estly done,  is  of  the  highest  value  in  developing 
all  these  qualities  and  has  a  higher  value,  in  that 
it  prepares  the  child  for  its  place  in  life.  A  school 
which  would  embody  these  characteristics  would 
be  an  ideal  school  for  negro  youth. 


126  At  Our  Own  Door 

Other  Needs 

So  much  he  should  learn  from  church  and  school. 
And  from  church  and  school — and  the  great  school 
of  life — he  should  learn  to  have  a  greater  self-re- 
spect. A  man  with  no  character  to  maintain  is  in 
a  deplorable  condition — he  is  a  moral  bankrupt. 
The  negro  must  awake  to  the  possibilities  of  his 
life.  If  he  holds  himself  up,  no  right  thinking 
man  will  hold  him  down. 

Also  he  must  learn  the  invaluable  lesson  of 
self-help.  He  has  employed  the  patronage  of 
philanthropy  to  such  extent  that  he  is  in  danger 
of  coming  to  depend  upon  the  assistance  of  others 
rather  than  the  efforts  of  self.  But  no  one  can 
give  him  any  gift  comparable  with  a  noble  spirit 
of  independence,  which  seeks  help  only  when  its 
last  resource  has  been  expended  in  the  effort  to  be 
its  own  helper.  Every  man  should  be  his  own 
best  friend.  In  life  there  are  no  gratuities — char- 
acter cannot  be  bestowed  with  the  alms,  and  he  is 
best  helped  who  is  helped  to  help  himself.  Self- 
help  should  be  a  large  article  in  the  creed  of  the 
negro,  who  desires  progress  and  success. 

Again,  he  should  learn  self -direction,  etc.,  to 
work  and  not  merely  to  he  worked.  The  negro 
population  drudge.  Work  is  a  necessity  but 
drudging  is  the  poorest  quality  of  work  both  for 
employer  and  employed.  There  should  be  an  in- 
spiration for  every  day's  toil.  He  should  work  as 
one  with  an  intelligent  purpose  and  as  one  who 
strives  to  accomplish  something.  To  toil  aimlessly 
and  hopelessly,  even  though  it  be  laboriously,  is 


The  White  Man's  Burden  127 

not  to  do  one's  best.  Unless  thought  and  purpose 
be  put  into  it,  work  becomes  an  unbearable  bur- 
den and  the  yoke  its  fitting  symbol.  But  to  plan, 
to  hope,  to  achieve — this  is  to  make  work  a  pleas- 
ure and  the  laborer  a  man^  and  not  "  a  brother  to 
the  ox." 

All  this  he  must  learn,  all  this  he  must  do. 
After  he  has  done  this  he  can  and  will  do  more, 
but  this  must  come  first. 

Our  Part  in  the  Work 

I  have  thus  far  said  nothing  directly  about  our 
own  work  for  the  colored  people — but  all  I  have 
said  is  pertinent  to  it. 

The  characteristics  I  have  named  are  those 
recognized  by  us  all  as  belonging  to  the  colored 
people.  The  economic  dependence  of  the  colored 
man  upon  the  white  is  known  to  us  all. 

The  commercial,  social  and  religious  defects  of 
the  weaker  people  are  known  to  every  one  of  us. 
The  principles  I  have  laid  down  are  those  to  which 
we  subscribe.  It  only  remains  I  should  indicate 
how  the  work  of  the  Executive  Committee  of  Col- 
ored Evangelization  in  the  Presbyterian  Church 
corresponds  with  these  facts. 

This  committee  seeks  by  means  of  Stillman  In- 
stitute at  Tuscaloosa,  Ala.,  to  train  a  ministry  of 
the  kind  mentioned  above  as  the  first  great  need 
of  the  American  negro. 

It  insists  upon  moral  uprightness  in  the  students 
at  Stillman  Institute,  and  the  superintendent  and 


128  At  Our  Own  Door 

faculty  at  Tuscaloosa  do  all  they  can  to  help  the 
life  of  the  student  body  on  a  high  plane. 

The  committee  will  not  employ  among  the  col- 
ored ministers  a  man  whose  character  it  has  reason 
to  doubt,  and  exercises  what  vigilance  it  can  to 
keep  the  body  of  its  workers  as  a  band  above  re- 
proach. 

The  Still  man  Institute  insists  upon  the  student 
doing  what  he  can  for  himself,  and  reduces  the 
help  given  him  to  a  minimum.  It  advises  him 
continually  to  be  his  own  dependence.  It  de- 
mands from  him  labor  which  it  seeks  to  direct  so 
as  to  make  it  profitable  to  the  student — teaching 
him  skill  and  economy,  and  exhorting  him  to  dili- 
gence and  fidelity. 

It  does  what  it  can  for  him  intellectually  and 
encourages  him  to  go  slowly  and  thoroughly. 

It  teaches  him  to  be  a  practical  teacher  and  pas- 
tor, and  prepares  him  for  usefulness  to  his  people 
by  teaching  him  their  present  condition  and  needs. 
It  seeks  to  make  strong  men  who  shall  bear  their 
part  in  the  great  work  to  be  done  for  that  race  by 
her  own  sons. 

In  addition  to  the  work  of  preparing  preachers, 
the  institute  fits  a  young  man  for  the  position  of 
Christian  teacher.  Also  the  committee  encourages 
the  ministers  in  its  employ  to  conduct  such  schools 
as  are  mentioned  above  under  the  second  great 
need  of  the  negroes. 

The  committee  also  endeavors  to  enlist  white 
Christians  in  the  work  of  the  mission  Sunday- 
schools  for  colored  children.     These  schools  have 


The  White  Man's  Burden  129 

done  a  good  work  wherever  they  have  been  given 
a  faithful  trial,  and  God's  blessing  rests  upon 
them. 

After  five  years'  experience  as  the  executive 
Secretary  of  this  work  for  our  Church,  I  am  per- 
suaded that  our  work  for  the  colored  people  is  a 
good  work.  It  is  well  thought  out.  It  rests  on  a 
solid  foundation.  It  is  as  successful  as  we  may 
reasonably  expect.  It  is  in  every  way  worthy  of 
the  contributions  of  our  people  to  it. 

I  have  severed  my  connection  with  the  work, 
but  not  because  of  disappointment  with  it,  nor 
discouragement  because  of  lack  of  support  from 
the  white  churches.  I  believe  the  colored  people 
need  our  help — that  our  way  of  giving  it  is  the 
right  way,  and  that  we  do  not  need  to  alter  our 
principles  but  to  endorse  them  with  our  gifts  and 
with  our  personal  efforts. 


VI 

THE  MEXICANS  IN  TEXAS 
By  Eev.  Walter  S.  Scofct,  Evangelist.  ^ 

The  presbytery  of  Western  Texas  embraces 
fifty  large  counties  covering  an  area  of  T0,740 
square  miles,  and  containing  a  population  of  390,- 
000.  It  is  one  of  the  largest  presbyteries  in  the 
empire  synod  of  our  Assembly.  It  is  as  large  in 
area  as  the  States  of  Virginia  and  West  Virginia 
together.  Koughly  estimated,  it  measures  in 
straight  lines  300  miles  north  and  south,  and  500 
miles  from  northwest  to  southeast.  In  fact,  it  can 
be  said  that  it  has  no  western  boundary — it  can 
take  in  the  entire  republic  of  Mexico. 

Bordering  on  a  foreign  country  for  the  length 
of  seven  hundred  miles,  situated  as  it  is  at  "  the 
meeting  of  the  waters,"  and  with  a  heterogeneous 
population,  the  difficulties  and  the  importance  of 
its  home  missionary  work  cannot  be  exaggerated. 

1.  It  is  this  unique  presbytery,  which  stands 
high  in  its  contributions  to  foreign  missions  and 
to  the  cause  of  education,  and  has  furnished  its  no 
small  quota  of  ministerial  candidates,  which,  with- 
out in  any  way  neglecting  its  American  work,  is 
undertaking,  with  the  aid  of  the  Central  Com- 

•  Written  at  the  request  of  the  author. 
130 


The  Mexicans  in  Texas  131 

mittee  of  Home  Missions,  the  evangelization  of  the 
90,000  Mexicans  within  its  bounds. 

Whether  for  our  weal  or  woe,  certainly  for  their 
intellectual  betterment  and  temporal  well-being, 
the  Mexicans  are  coming  into  the  State  in  ever- 
increasing  numbers.  One  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  is  a  small  estimate  of  the  number  in  the 
State. 

"We  have  nothing  to  do  directly  with  the  indus- 
trial and  the  international  phases  of  the  question, 
nor  are  we  to  quarrel  with  the  condition ;  it  is  for 
us,  as  a  people  charged  with  the  high  commission 
to  evangelize  the  world,  to  meet  it  calmly  and 
resolutely  and  discharge  our  Christian  obligation 
to  this  influx  of  aliens ;  rejoicing  that,  in  the 
Providence  of  God,  they  have  come  within  this 
free,  Christian  land  of  ours,  where,  comparatively, 
they  can  be  reached  with  the  gospel  more  easily 
and  more  effectively. 

There  are  towns  on  the  border  where  the  Eng- 
lish language  is  rarely  spoken ;  there  are  county 
schools  where  the  children  learn  more  Spanish 
than  English.  There  are  some  twelve  newspapers 
published  in  Spanish  in  the  State.  In  San  An- 
tonio, the  metropolis  of  Texas,  there  are  12,000 
Mexicans,  with  5,000  more  in  the  county  out  of 
the  city.  In  one  of  the  largest  public  schools  of 
the  city,  there  are  more  Mexican  pupils  than 
American.  I  once  saw  seven  hundred  convicts 
assembled  in  the  Hunts ville  penitentiary,  one 
hundred  of  whom  were  Mexicans. 

2.    The  Mexicans  are  nominally  Koman  Cath- 


132  At  Our  Own  Door 

olics.  To  those  who  question  our  policy  of  evan- 
gelization, I  would  say  that  the  glory  of  our 
Protestant  Church  is  that  it  frees  men  from  relig- 
ious thraldom.  In  our  country  every  one  is  free 
to  worship  God  according  to  the  dictates  of  his 
conscience,  and  to  believe  according  to  the  best 
light  he  has.  We  do  not  owe  this  freedom  to  the 
Eomish  Church  ;  it  is  not  a  product  of  its  system. 
So  long  as  we  do  not  proselyte  with  firebrand  and 
sword,  and  do  not  compel  people  to  our  faith  with 
cruel  persecutions,  as  the  French  Catholics  have 
done  with  Protestants  in  Madagascar,  no  one 
should  complain.  Is  not  the  Catholic  Church 
proselyting  Protestants  to-day  on  the  Hawaiian 
Islands  ?  Did  she  not  but  recently  proselyte  four 
hundred  Protestants  at  one  time  on  the  Fiji  Is- 
lands ?  Is  she  not  by  her  "  special  missions  to 
non-Catholics,"  carrying  on  in  this  country  a  cam- 
paign of  proselyting  as  she  has  never  done  before  ? 

But  we  are  not  proselyting.  The  common  peo- 
ple of  Eoman  Catholic  countries — the  Mexicans 
among  them — are  sick  and  tired  of  that  Church's 
spiritual  dominion,  and  of  the  emptiness  of  its 
worship  and  teachings  ;  their  hungry  souls  are 
crying  out  for  the  Living  Bread.  They  are  with- 
out the  gospel,  which  "  is  the  power  of  God  unto 
salvation  "  ;  they  are  ignorant  of  the  truth  as  it  is 
in  Jesus,  therefore,  they  cannot  possess  the  saving 
faith  which  cometh  by  the  word  of  God. 

Then,  they  do  not  pray  ;  they  do  not  come  unto 
God  by  Christ ;  they  know  not  the  joy  of  draw- 
ing near  with  boldness  unto  a  throne  of  grace^ 


The  Mexicans  in  Texas  133 

They  have  a  pagan's  idea  of  sin  and  repentance  ; 
they  know  nothing  of  regeneration,  nor  of  the  in- 
dispensable work  of  the  Spirit.  In  a  word,  they 
are  without  God,  and  without  hope  in  the  world. 

Woe  unto  us  if  we  preach  not  the  Gospel  unto 
them  ! 

In  giving  the  Gospel  to  these  people  we  are  not 
only  obeying  our  risen  Lord's  command  to  make 
disciples  of  all  the  nations,  but  we  are  rendering 
an  inestimable  service  to  our  country  as  well,  by 
teaching  them  to  be  law-abiding,  industrious  and 
thrifty  citizens.  We  are  establishing  Christian 
homes  among  them  where  the  Lord's  day  is  kept, 
where  prayer  and  praise  are  heard,  where  the  young 
are  being  taught  to  fear  God  and  keep  His  com- 
mandments, and  where  the  marriage  relation  is 
held  in  honor. 

It  should  be  also  borne  in  mind  that  by  evangel- 
izing the  Mexicans  in  Texas  we  are  indirectly 
contributing  to  the  evangelization  of  Mexico. 
The  people  are  going  and  coming  constantly  and 
the  Gospel  leaven  is  being  carried  to  their  native 
land  where  it  has  borne  fruit  in  a  number  of  in- 
stances. Dr.  A.  T.  Graybill  has  said  that  the 
beginning  of  his  church  at  Linares,  Mex.,  was 
largely  due  to  a  man  who  had  been  converted  in 
Texas. 

We  have  seen  too  many  instances  of  the  efficacy 
of  the  precious  word  of  God  and  of  the  work  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  among  them  to  doubt  for  a  mo- 
ment their  need  of  the  Gospel  and  our  duty  to  give 
it  to  them.     The  hundreds  of  Mexican  brethren 


134  At  Our  Own  Door 

who  have  been  given  to  us  as  trophies  of  our  work 
are  so  many  incentives  for  us  to  redouble  our 
efforts  in  behalf  of  the  many  thousands  who  are 
yet  groping  in  the  dark,  professing  to  know  God, 
but  in  their  works  denying  Him. 

Our  members  would  not  give  up  the  Bible  nor 
their  evangelical  faith  and  go  back  to  what  they 
were  before  without  a  great  struggle;  many 
would  die  first ;  for  they  well  know  it  would  mean 
going  hack  to  the  world. 

Taking  everything  into  consideration  I  can 
truthfully  testify  to  the  stability  of  our  converts. 
The  few  that  have  gone  back  to  the  priest  during 
the  eleven  and  a  half  years  of  my  ministry,  were  not 
living  above  reproach  when  they  left  us,  and  have 
since  become  extremely  worldly  and  licentious. 

3.  To  form  a  just  estimate  of  our  success  we 
must  not,  on  the  one  hand,  doubt  the  efficacy  of 
the  Gospel  nor  the  power  of  the  Spirit  to  con- 
vict and  convert  the  Mexicans ;  and  on  the  other, 
we  should  not  expect  to  succeed  better,  or  even  as 
well,  in  our  Mexican  work,  considering  the  besotted 
ignorance  and  gross  superstitiousness  of  the  people, 
and  the  men  and  means  at  our  command,  as  in 
the  regular  work  of  the  Church  among  Americans. 

The  Mexican  work  was  organized  when  the 
Presbytery  of  Western  Texas  ordained  an  evangel- 
ist and  put  him  in  charge  of  it  in  April  of  1892. 
We  then  had  but  one  church  with  fifty-nine  mem- 
bers, and  no  property  to  speak  of. 

In  April  of  this  year  (1903) — after  eleven  and  a 
half  years,  we  reported  thirteen  organized  churches, 


The  Mexicans  in  Texas  135 

680  members,  twenty-one  elders  and  seventeen 
deacons.  There  were  eleven  Sunday-schools  with 
forty  teachers  and  officers  and  415  scholars. 
Owing  to  the  migratory  character  of  the  people 
we  lose  a  number  of  members  every  year.  I  have 
estimated  that  we  have  lost,  in  one  way  and 
another,  some  three  hundred  members,  in  ten 
years.  This  should  be  taken  into  account  in  order 
to  get  a  correct  idea  of  the  growth  of  the  work  as 
regards  the  number  of  members  received.  We 
have  two  evangelists  and  three  Mexican  ordained 
preachers,  and  a  day  school  at  Laredo  with  two 
teachers.  Seven  of  our  churches  have  their  own 
houses  of  worship. 

Last  year  103  members  were  received  on  ex- 
amination, and  fifty-five  adults  and  fifty-eight 
children  were  baptized.  The  Mexicans  contrib- 
uted $450.00  for  all  purposes. 

For  this  great  work  we  are  receiving  but  $2,000 
a  year  from  the  Central  Committee  of  Home  Mis- 
sions ;  the  rest  of  the  expense  is  borne  by  the 
presbytery.  Last  year,  the  cost  per  new  member 
received  was  $27.00.  "While  in  our  American 
work  at  large  it  cost  over  $100.00  per  new  mem- 
ber, it  cost  the  Mexican  work  less  than  $30.00 ; 
and  while  in  the  whole  Church  it  took  one  hun- 
dred to  win  five  members  on  profession,  in  the 
Mexican  work  one  hundred  members  won  sixteen. 
Every  one  interested  in  this  work  should  be  satisfied 
with  such  success. 

The  original  church  here  at  San  Marcos  has  in- 
creased to  four  churches  and  a  membership  of  350. 


136  At  Our  Own  Door 

Each  church  has  its  Sabbath-school ;  three  of  them 
have  a  Young  People's  Society  and  a  Woman's 
Missionary  Society.  Services  are  held  every  Sun- 
day, the  weather  permitting,  conducted  by  the 
elders  in  my  absence.  Each  church  has  its  own 
house  of  worship,  the  members  themselves  doing 
most  of  the  work  in  their  construction.  The  mem- 
bers of  the  four  churches  have  helped  each  other 
in  the  erection  of  their  chapels,  furnishing  labor, 
tools  and  teams. 

The  elders  and  deacons  of  these  four  churches 
have  an  association  regularly  organized,  which 
meets  once  a  month,  for  mutual  improvement  and 
for  mutual  incentive  and  cooperation  in  the  work. 

I  feel  that  if  nothing  more  had  been  given  us  to 
reward  the  work  of  eleven  and  a  half  years,  the 
success  that  has  attended  the  work  in  the  San 
Marcos  field  amply  justifies  the  labor  and  money 
expended.  One  of  the  three  preachers  we  have, 
came  from  these  churches.  Three  other  young 
men  are  studying  for  the  ministry  and  a  fourth 
will  soon  begin. 

'r  As  instances  of  the  zeal  and  consecration  of  our 
Mexican  elders,  I  will  mention  one  who  goes 
nearly  every  Sunday,  when  the  weather  will  per- 
mit, sixteen  miles  on  horseback  from  his  farm  to 
church  to  conduct  Sunday-school  and  service. 
Another  is  going  once  a  month  some  seventy-five 
or  eighty  miles  in  his  own  conveyance,  at  his  own 
expense  and  without  any  pecuniary  remuneration, 
to  hold  services  for  a  week  or  ten  days. 

Surely  there  is  a  good  foundation  in  the  char- 


The  Mexicans  in  Texas  137 

acter  of  these  people  upon  which  we  can  build  up, 
with  the  blessing  of  God,  a  strong,  self-propagat- 
ing and  self-sustaining  church  in  the  future. 

4.  We  could  greatly  enlarge  our  work  if  we 
had  the  means.  "We  would  like  to  take  our  place 
and  do  our  modest  share  in  the  great  forward 
movement  in  home  missions. 

We  need  right  now  $1,200,  with  what  we  can 
raise  on  the  ground,  to  build  three  chapels  where 
they  are  greatly  needed. 

The  Committee  of  Education  has  signified  its 
willingness  to  aid  us  in  the  support  of  our  Mexican 
students  while  pursuing  their  theological  studies 
in  some  accredited  seminary  of  our  Church,  but 
we  need  help  to  put  them  through  their  prepara- 
tory course  at  some  suitable  school. 

Means  should  be  given  us  to  establish  a  theolog- 
ical school,  where  men  with  a  good  literary  and 
scientific  foundation  can  be  prepared  for  the  Gos- 
pel ministry. 

The  longer  I  work  in  this  field  the  more  im- 
pressed I  am  with  the  need  of  a  seminary  for  our 
Mexican  girls  where  the  future  wives  and  mothers 
of  our  mission  can  receive  a  practical  training 
and  a  Christian  education  fitting  them  to  dis- 
charge their  important  and  peculiar  duties  in  the 
home  and  church. 

Would  that  some  one  endowed  with  means 
would  give  us  the  money  with  which  to  establish 
this  much  needed  girls'  school,  whose  influence  in 
propagating  the  faith  and  building  up  Christ's 
kingdom  among  this  people  would  be  incalculable. 


138  At  Our  Own  Door 

"Now  I  beseech  you,  brethren,  for  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ's  sake,  and  for  the  love  of  the  Spirit, 
that  ye  strive  together  with  me  in  your  prayers  to 
God,"  for  this  work. 


VII 
INDIANS  AND  THEIR  TERRITORY 

1.  In  his  discovery  of  America,  Columbus  im- 
agined that  he  had  sailed  around  the  world  and 
touched  the  shores  of  India ;  and  so  the  strange 
people  inhabiting  America  were  called  "  Indians." 
Four  hundred  years  of  contact  with  these  "  origi- 
nal inhabitants  "  and  study  of  the  problem  of  their 
nationality  leave  us  as  ignorant  of  their  origin  as 
at  first.  They  have  been  supposed  by  some  to  be 
"  the  lost  ten  tribes  of  Israel,"  a  theory  as  fanciful 
and  with  as  little  foundation  as  Professor  Tot- 
ten's  Anglo-Israel  speculation.  Others  have  ex- 
plained how  they  drifted  across  Behring's  Strait, 
where  the  old  and  the  new  world  almost  touch. 
The  mystery  perhaps  will  never  find  solution.  The 
North  American  tribes  are  known  in  history  as 
"  savages,"  a  well  earned  title  ;  but  in  Mexico  the 
Astecs  and  in  South  America  the  Incas  dwelt  in 
cities,  exhibiting  a  high  type  of  civilization  and 
leaving  relics  and  ruins  which  still  perplex  the 
scientist. 

The  aborigines  of  !N"orth  America  were  sepa- 
rated into  distinct  tribes,  speaking  at  least  two  hun- 
dred languages,  roaming  the  forests,  living  in  tem- 
porary wigwams,  cultivating  none  of  the  soil  except 
a  little  patch  of  Indian  corn,  the  work  of  the 

139 


140  At  Our  Own  Door 

"  squaw,"  whilst  the  "  braves  "  spent  their  time  in 
hunting  wild  game  and  in  scalping  the  prisoners 
captured  from  neighboring  tribes.  Still  with  all 
their  savagery,  brutality  and  degradation,  they 
have  established  their  claim  to  recognition  in  the 
"  Unity  of  the  Human  Race  "  by  the  possession  of 
many  traits  of  nobility  of  character  and  by  some 
rude  knowledge  of  the  Deity.  "  Lo,  the  poor 
Indian,  whose  untutored  mind  saw  God  in  the 
cloud  and  heard  Him  in  the  wind,"  demonstrates 
his  religious  nature,  and  his  childlike  faith  in  "  the 
Great  Spirit,"  and  his  right  to  recognition  in  the 
Brotherhood  of  Man. 

"The  character  of  the  American  Indian  has 
been  variously  estimated.  James  Fennimore 
Cooper,  in  his  matchless  Indian  stories,  has  ideal- 
ized him  and  has  described  him  as  capable  of  being 
inspired  by  lofty  motives  and  of  performing  heroic 
and  self-sacrificing  deeds.  On  the  other  hand,  there 
have  been  those  who  have  scarcely  found  language 
in  which  to  express  their  opinion  of  the  cruelty 
and  treachery  of  the  Indian  character.  The  golden 
mean  is  perhaps  the  better  estimate.  Like  all  other 
races,  the  Indian  was  a  mixture  of  good  and  evil, 
and  was  capable  of  performing  both  heroic  and 
diabolical  deeds  "  (Dr.  Sherman  Doyle). 
—  "  There  is  no  good  Indian  but  a  dead  Indian," 
has  grown  into  a  proverb,  which  contains  about  as 
much  truth  as  the  slander  that  "  the  Pilgrims  upon 
landing  at  Plymouth  Rock  fell  first  upon  their 
knees  and  then  upon  the  aborigines."  The  first 
is  a  slander  of  the  Indian,  which  seeks  to  justify 


Indians  and  Their  Territory  141 

our  national  treatment  of  him  ;  the  latter  is  a  criti- 
cism which  arraigns  the  government  as  a  mur- 
derer of  the  innocent  and  a  robber  of  his  lands. 
It  is  doubtful  whether  there  was  ever  a  quarrel  in 
which  the  wrong  was  all  on  one  side  and  the  right 
on  the  other.  It  matters  little  how  the  enmity 
between  the  races  originated,  the  United  States  and 
its  people  are  not  wholly  innocent  in  their  dealings 
with  him,  but  neither  is  the  Indian  himself  blame- 
less. If  there  have  been  broken  treaties  on 
one  side,  there  have  been  treachery  and  toma- 
hawks on  the  other.  If  the  Indian  has  been 
driven  from  his  "  hunting  ground,"  he  has  received 
other  lands  more  than  his  needs  require ;  and  he 
has  been  given  "rations,"  civilization,  education 
and  Christianity.  If  the  French  employed  his 
tomahawk  and  scalping  knife  against  the  English, 
the  English  and  the  American  have  used  him  as  a 
tool  against  the  French  and  against  each  other. 
But  there  can  be  no  questioning  the  fact  that  in 
the  balances  of  compensation,  he  has  received  more 
of  good  than  evil  at  the  hands  of  the  white 
man. 

The  charge  of  exterminating  the  Indians  contains 
more  or  less  of  truth,  but  is  certainly  not  proven. 
"Whilst  many  have  estimated  their  number  in 
North  America  in  the  settlement  of  the  country, 
at  several  millions,  it  is  at  best  a  guess  without  any 
basis  of  data.  Many  conservative  estimates  equally 
worthy  of  consideration  place  the  number  at  much 
less  than  half  a  million.  In  that  view  of  the  case 
"  extermination  "  has  only  reduced  him  to  266,000 


142  At  Our  Own  Door 

according  to  the  latest  census.  If  civilization  is 
exterminating  him,  it  must  be  admitted  that  the 
process  has  been  slower  than  his  own  internecine 
method  of  warfare,  by  which  he  was  exterminat- 
ing himself,  and  certainly  much  more  humane. 

Hon.  T.  J.  Morgan,  ex-commissioner  of  Indian 
Affairs,  and  for  ten  years  corresponding  Secretary 
of  missions  in  the  Baptist  Church,  furnishes  the 
most  exhaustive  and  just  summary  of  our  relations 
to  the  Indians  ever  attempted,  which  may  be 
abridged  as  follows : 

They  were  our  Forerunners^  who  preceded  us 
and  had  the  oldest  claim  upon  the  American  Con- 
tinent ;  our  Hosts,  who  welcomed  our  pilgrim  fore- 
fathers when  they  landed  at  Plymouth  Rock ;  our 
Landlords,  from  whom  we  first  rented  and  ac- 
quired land;  our  Rival  Nation,  with  whom  we 
made  treaties  and  traded ;  at  times  our  Savage 
Foes,  burning  our  homes  and  cruelly  tomahawk- 
ing alike  defenseless  women  and  little  children ; 
afterwards  our  Friendly  Allies,  who  helped  us  to 
fight  our  battles  against  our  enemies;  gradually 
overcome  by  the  white  people  they  became  Con- 
quered Subjects  /  now  the  Wards  of  the  nation 
receiving  constant  help  from  the  government ;  as 
lands  are  being  allotted  them  in  the  Indian  Terri- 
tory, they  are  becoming  our  Fellow  Citizens  /  many 
of  them  are  still  Savages  and  Heathen,  who  must  be 
evangelized  and  led  to  Jesus ;  and  numbers  are  now 
converted  and  are  our  Fellow  Christians  and  Breth- 
ren in  Christ,  assisting  in  the  great  work  of  giving 
the  Gospel  to  others. 


Indians  and  Their  Territory  143 

Others  have  divided  our  treatment  of  the  Indian 
into  three  periods : 

{a)  The  Colonial^  characterized  by  war,  blood- 
shed, treachery  on  both  sides  and  rapine — a  perfect 
reign  of  terror.  The  farmer  returned  from  his 
fields  to  find  his  wife  scalped  and  his  children  car- 
ried away  into  the  trackless  forests  to  a  living 
death.  The  villager  was  awakened  at  midnight 
by  the  yells  of  savages  or  the  lurid  flames  that 
laid  in  ashes  the  town.  The  congregation  carried 
their  muskets  to  church  and  stacked  them  outside 
the  door.  Indians  were  cheated  and  maltreated 
by  the  settlers ;  often  enticed  by  fair  promises  to 
their  death. 

(J)  The  National  Period,  designated  by  Helen 
Hunt  Jackson,  "  The  Century  of  Dishonor,"  in 
which  there  were  constant  wars  between  the  races, 
the  Seminoles  driven  from  Florida,  the  Cherokees 
from  Georgia  and  the  Creeks  from  Alabama — 
driven  by  soldiers  ever  westward — in  which  multi- 
tudes perished  during  the  long  overland  route. 
New  treaties  were  made  giving  lands  to  the 
Indians  "  while  water  ran  and  grass  grew,"  only 
to  be  violated  before  the  ink  in  which  the  treaty 
was  written  had  scarcely  dried.  This  was  the 
period  of  the  "Indian  Agent,"  "rations,"  and 
government  guardianship.  Corrupt  men  grew 
fat  by  robbing  the  Indian  of  his  supplies,  etc. ;  but 
it  was  not  worse  than  the  average  "  spoils  politi- 
cian system  "  ;  and  which  we  may  expect  to  have 
repeated  in  Porto  Kico,  the  Philippines,  etc.,  where 


144  -^t  ^"^  ^^'^  Door 

bad  men  are  confronted  with  temptation  and  the 
opportunity. 

(c)  The  third  period  is  known  as  "  The  Peace 
Policy, ^^  beginning  in  1870,  when  President  Grant 
announced  his  intention  of  dealing  with  the  Indians 
in  a  more  friendly  and  righteous  manner.  Civili- 
zation and  education  were  invoked  to  ameliorate 
his  condition.  Industrial  schools  and  colleges  were 
established ;  and  Christian  people  invited  to  send 
missionaries  to  instruct  them  in  the  way  of  right- 
eousness, etc.  This  is  beginning  to  bear  fruit ;  and 
the  Indian  is  fast  coming  to  the  privilege  of  citizen- 
ship and  into  the  possession  of  property  and  lands. 

In  the  Capitol  at  Washington  are  four  histor- 
ical pictures,  which  are  striking  object  lessons  of 
the  treatment  which  the  Indians  have  received. 
The  first  is  the  landing  of  white  men,  and  the 
offering  of  corn  to  them  by  the  Indians,  The 
second  is  the  signing  of  the  treaty  ceding  Pennsyl- 
vania to  the  white  man.  The  third  shows  Poca- 
hontas in  the  act  of  defending  Capt.  John  Smith. 
The  fourth  represents  an  engagement  between  the 
whites  and  the  Indians,  in  which  the  latter  are 
being  killed.  An  Indian,  to  whom  the  Capitol 
was  being  shown,  stood  thoughtfully  before  the 
pictures  described  and  summed  up  the  history  of 
his  people  in  a  few  simple  words :  "  Indian  give 
.white  man  corn.  Indian  give  white  man  land. 
Indian  save  white  man.  White  man  kill  Indian." 
Admitting  this  simple  indictment  as  the  truth  of 
history,  is  there  anything  to  be  said  in  extenua- 
tion besides  the  law  of  self-preservation,  which 


Indians  and  Their  Territory  145 

often  required  the  white  man  to  fight  for  his  life  ? 
In  other  words,  has  the  Indian  received  any  proper 
compensation  for  his  ill  treatment  ?  Passing  by 
the  thousands  of  dollars  spent  in  "  rations  "  and 
education  by  the  Government  in  the  effort  to  civi- 
lize him  for  citizenship — amounting  to  $140,000,000 
in  the  last  thirty  years — let  us  glance  at  the  work 
of  the  Church  in  Christianizing  him  and  preparing 
him  for  the  citizenship  of  heaven. 

The  Indian  suffered  much  at  the  hands  of  the 
Spaniard,  but  to  him  belongs  the  honor  of  making 
the  first  attempt  to  establish  missions  among  the 
North  American  tribes.  Many  Franciscan  Monks 
perished  in  the  attempt,  but  finally  succeeded  in 
establishing  a  successful  mission  at  St.  Augustine, 
Fla.  Many  converts  at  different  times  blessed 
their  labors.  The  first  Protestant  mission  for 
Indians  was  established  at  Martha's  Vineyard. 
Thomas  Mayhew,  father  and  son,  devoted  them- 
selves to  the  work  of  Christianizing  the  Indians.  It 
is  said  the  first  convert,  "  Hiacoomes,"  became  a 
preacher  of  the  Gospel  among  his  own  people.  In 
1650  Mayhew  reported  190  conversions  among  this 
people. 

"Most  conspicuous  among  the  early  successful 
missionaries  to  the  Indians  stands  John  Eliot,  'the 
apostle  to  the  Indians.'  The  field  of  his  labors 
was  among  the  Pequots  and  other  tribes  of  East- 
ern Massachusetts.  He  began  his  work  in  1646 
while  pastor  of  the  church  at  Roxbury,  Mass.  He 
labored  incessantly  and  his  efforts  were  crowned 
with  success.     He  gathered  converts  into  towns 


146  At  Our  Own  Door 

and  established  schools  and  civilized  industries 
among  them.  These  towns  were  known  as  *  pray- 
ing bands,'  or  '  Indian  praying  towns.'  He  framed 
two  catechisms  for  Indian  use  and  translated  the 
Bible  into  their  language,  which  was  his  greatest 
work.  The  translation  of  the  entire  Bible  was  com- 
pleted in  December,  1658.  Two  years  later  the 
printing  of  it  was  finished.  This  was  theji/rst  Bible 
prinied  on  the  American  Continent. 

"  What  a  providence  that  it  should  have  heen  in 
the  Indian  tongue  !  Eliot's  motto,  written  at  the 
end  of  his  Indian  Grammar,  was, 

" '  Prayer  and  pains^ 
Through  Faith  in  Jesus  Christy 
Will  do  anything.^ 

He  labored  for  thirty  years  among  his  people 
teaching  them  to  work,  to  read  and  to  pray.  '  He 
gave  them  a  Bible  in  their  own  tongue  and  from 
those  hunting  and  fighting  savages  six  Indian 
churches  were  gathered,  whose  more  than  a  thou- 
sand "  Praying  Indians,"  once  and  again  stood  firm 
against  fearful  odds,  and  became  a  bulwark  of 
safety  to  their  pale  face  neighbors.' 
\  "The  Quakers  began  their  Indian  missionary 
work  in  Pennsylvania  in  1685.  Penn's  famous 
treaty  with  the  Delawares,  which  was  unbroken 
for  seventy  years  by  either  party,  has  been  called 
'  the  brightest  spot  in  all  our  dark  dealings  with 
the  Indian  tribes.'  The  Moravians  early  estab- 
lished successful  Indian  missions.  They  began 
their  work  in  western  Connecticut  in  1742,  but 


Indians  and  Their  Territory  147 

labored  most  extensively  in  Pennsylvania,  Georgia 
and  Ohio.  .  .  .  Kev.  Jonathan  Edwards,  the 
great  New  England  divine,  was  also  a  successful 
missionary  among  the  Indians.     .     .     . 

"  The  Presbyterian  Church  has  always  been  in- 
terested in  the  conversion  of  the  American  Indians. 
The  history  of  Presbyterian  missions  among  the 
Indians  '  is  a  long  and  inspiring  story  from  early 
Colonial  efforts  beginning  with  Long  Island  Indians 
to  this  opening  of  the  twentieth  century,  when  at 
least  thirty-five  tribes  have  been  reached  and  120 
missions  and  schools  are  in  successful  operation  in 
the  great  "West.'  The  first  Presbyterian  missionary 
among  the  American  Indians  was  Kev.  Asariah 
Horton.  He  began  his  work  on  Long  Island 
in  1741.     His  salary  was  £40  per  annum.     .     .     . 

"  Eev.  David  Brainerd,  the  biography  of  whose 
consecrated  life  was  written  by  Jonathan  Ed- 
wards, was  the  second  Presbyterian  missionary  to 
the  Indians.  .  .  .  Dr.  Ashbell  Green  says  his 
*  success  here  was  perhaps  without  a  parallel  in 
heathen  missions  since  the  days  of  the  apostles ' " 
(Presbyterian  Home  Missions). 

The  Presbyterian  Church  carried  on  successful 
missions  among  many  tribes  and  did  a  great  work 
for  Christ  among  these  children  of  the  forest.  In 
addition  to  the  great  number  of  converts  won  in 
many  quarters,  it  can  point  to  the  Choctaws, 
Chickasaws,  Cherokees,  Creeks  and  Seminoles  of 
the  Indian  Territory,  to-day  numbered  among 
Christian  people,  as  the  "  Five  Civilized  Nations," 
largely  due  to  the  work  and  influence  of  the  mis- 


148  At  Our  Own  Door 

sionary.  At  the  beginning  of  the  Civil  "War  these 
cast  in  their  lot  with  the  Southern  States,  and  were 
ministered  to  by  the  Southern  Church,  which  spent 
$20,000  on  them  the  first  year  of  the  war.  The 
strain  of  the  war  which  reduced  the  Southern  peo- 
ple to  extreme  poverty  was  a  hindrance  to  suc- 
cessful prosecution  of  the  work ;  and  yet  few  mis- 
sions have  been  more  creditable  alike  to  benefactors 
and  beneficiaries.  The  war  ruined  the  South  finan- 
,x  cially,  and  being  unable  to  meet  the  needs  of  the 
work,  with  unselfish  generosity  the  Southern 
Church  transferred  all  the  Northern  section  of  the 
Indian  Territory  to  the  Northern  Presbyterian 
Church,  confining  its  own  operations  to  the  two 
tribes  of  Choctaws  and  Chickasaws.  By  this  act 
it  lost  the  results  of  its  large  outlay  of  funds  and 
self-sacrificing  effort,  but  gave  to  our  sister  church 
one  of  the  brightest  fields  of  missionary  enter- 
prise, which  to  their  credit  let  it  be  said  has  been 
faithfully  cultivated.  During  the  forty  years  of 
its  separate  existence,  the  Southern  Church  has  re- 
ceived about  2,500  Indians  into  the  fold  of  Christ 
and  expended  perhaps  a  quarter  of  a  million  dol- 
lars on  their  evangelization.  After  transferring 
many  of  their  converts  to  the  Northern  Church, 
and  contributing  numbers  to  the  Church  Trium- 
phant, it  still  has  forty  churches  and  about  1,000 
communicants  among  them.  Of  these,  eighteen 
have  been  organized  within  the  past  two  years, 
many  of  them  containing  white  people  so  rapidly 
settling  the  Indian  Territory.  One  new  presby- 
tery has  recently  been  formed  of  eight  ministers 


Indians  and  Their  Territory  149 

and  twenty  churches,  which  marks  the  more  re- 
cent growth  of  revived  work  in  this  field. 

One  of  our  missionaries,  Mrs.  Bella  McCallum 
Gibbons,  a  cultured  and  refined  Christian  woman, 
who  is  giving  her  life  and  heart  to  this  work  and 
rendering  noble  service  to  Christ  and  the  Church 
in  this  field,  is  best  entitled  to  testify  to  the  charac- 
ter of  this  people,  and  the  work  under  present  con- 
ditions : 

"  As  the  Indian  was  400  years  ago,  he  is  in  many 
respects  the  same  to-day.  Although  they  have 
adopted  the  dress,  and  many  of  the  customs  of 
our  race,  still  to  a  great  extent  they  are  children 
of  Nature,  simple  in  their  habits,  reverent  in  their 
devotions,  given  to  hospitality  to  friend  or  to  foe. 

"  It  is  generally  believed  that  as  a  race  they  are 
indolent,  but  that  is  a  mistake.  It  is  true  that  many 
of  them  are  very  poor,  hundreds  of  them  without 
the  necessities  of  life,  much  less  the  comforts,  still 
when  we  remember  the  life  of  their  ancestry,  we 
must  not  be  too  harsh  in  our  judgment. 

"  When  living  here  unmolested,  their  wants  were 
simple,  their  little  patches  made  them  bread,  the 
game  in  the  forest  furnished  their  meat,  while  the 
skins  of  animals  were  used  for  bedding  and  shelter. 
They  did  not  know  how  to  till  their  land,  to  build 
their  homes,  but  many  of  them  have  learned,  more 
are  learning  all  the  time  ;  and  although  to  the  out- 
side world  their  advancement  has  been  slow  on  those 
lines,  when  we  consider  their  opportunities  for  an 
education  that  would  teach  them  to  be  energetic, 
self-sustaining,  providing  for  the  future,  we  must 


150  At  Our  Own  Door 

again  throw  the  veil  of  charity  over  them,  because 
they  have  never  been  taught  how  to  best  apply 
their  latent  energy  in  the  right  way. 

"  By  nature  Indians  are  of  a  reverent  disposition, 
and  when  they  profess  Christianity  at  all,  theirs  is 
religion  in  all  simplicity  and  purity.  They  are  not 
bothered  in  their  belief  with  either  creeds  or  dog- 
mas, the  simple  story  of  '  the  Cross '  is  sufficient 
for  them  in  this  life,  as  well  for  the  one  which 
holds  so  much  promise  to  them  when  they  pass  to 
the  one  beyond.  All  their  worship  is  sacred  to 
them,  and  their  church  hymns,  sung  in  their  own 
language,  mostly  written  in  minor  keys  are  touching 
in  the  extreme.  Not  many  of  our  race  can  hear 
them  sing  for  the  first  time  with  dry  eyes.  Their 
consciences  are  so  tender  that  if  they  do  the  least 
thing  they  think  sinful,  it  becomes  such  a  burden 
to  them  that  they  will  take  no  part  nor  parcel  in 
any  form  of  divine  worship  until  confession  is 
made  to  the  Church  ;  then  assured  of  forgiveness, 
they  are  ready  for  work  in  the  Master's  vineyard 
again. 

"  Before  the  Indians  left  their  homes  in  the  East, 
Presbyterian  missionaries  were  at  work  among 
them.  Rev.  Messrs.  Copeland,  Byington  and 
Hotchkin  came  here  with  the  Choctaws  to  this 
weird,  lonely,  desolate  looking  country,  burying 
themselves  with  these  people  in  these  unbroken 
forests  in  order  to  teach  them  that  Christ  died  for 
them,  to  lead  them  to  believe  that  the  white  man's 
God  would  also  be  a  loving,  merciful  Father  to 
them  if  they  would  accept  His  teachings — which 


Indians  and  Their  Territory  151 

numbers  have  done.  More  missionaries  followed 
those  early  pioneers ;  some  have  entered  into  their 
rest  beyond,  others  are  still  here,  laboring  under 
many  trials,  telling  and  teaching  of  God's  love 
and  mercy." 

The  present  Secretary  made  a  visit  to  the  Terri- 
tory almost  immediately  upon  his  election,  and  in 
his  first  published  report  gave  this  testimony, 
which  has  not  been  changed  by  any  of  his  subse- 
quent visits  and  closer  scrutiny  of  the  case :  "  The 
Indian  people  are  as  true  and  genuine  Presbyteri- 
ans as  can  be  found  anywhere  on  earth.  The  visit 
of  the  home  mission  Secretary  to  the  Indian  Pres- 
bytery will  always  be  remembered  as  a  joy  for- 
ever. Leaving  their  homes,  the  entire  Indian  com- 
munity was  encamped  around  the  church.  Each 
Indian  Church  sends  not  only  an  elder  to  presby- 
tery, but  entire  families,  men,  women  and  children. 
At  daybreak  the  bell  rings  for  sunrise  prayer  meet- 
ing, conducted  by  the  Indians  themselves  in  the 
Choctaw  language.  At  9  and  11  a.  m.,  and  at  3 
and  7  p.  m.,  they  have  preaching  by  a  Choctaw 
Indian  or  by  a  missionary  through  an  interpreter. 
After  the  last  service,  at  night,  the  Indian  popula- 
tion remains  to  sing,  which  they  keep  up  till  late 
in  the  night,  and  it  thrills  one's  soul  to  hear  their 
earnest  singing  of  the  good  old  tunes.  Most  of 
the  Indian  Churches  have  service  every  Sabbath. 
If  no  minister  is  present,  an  elder  conducts  the 
worship,  and  they  sing  and  pray  with  as  much  en- 
joyment as  if  a  minister  were  present  to  preach 
the  Gospel." 


152  At  Our  Own  Door 

In  addition  to  its  churches  and  Sabbath-schools, 
the  Southern  Church  ten  years  ago  began  to  estab- 
lish Christian  schools  among  the  Indians,  not  only 
to  teach  ordinary  branches  of  secular  education  but 
the  catechisms  of  the  Church,  and  the  principles  of 
the  Christian  religion.  This  work  has  prospered 
and  grown  from  a  "  day  of  small  things  "  to  large 
proportions,  sustained  entirely  by  the  gifts  of  the 
Sabbath-school  children  in  their  fifth  Sabbath  col- 
lections. Out  of  this  work  has  grown  Durant 
Presbyterian  College,  a  beautiful  pressed  brick 
building  costing  $15,000,  employing  seven  teachers 
and  having  annually  300  students.  It  is  nearly 
self-supporting,  but  sadly  in  need  of  more  dormi- 
tories and  furniture,  being  unable  to  accommodate 
the  students  proposing  to  enter  its  walls,  and  com- 
pelled each  year  to  turn  away  many  applicants  for 
places  among  its  student  body.  President  E. 
Hotchkin  deserves  the  lasting  gratitude  of  the 
Church  for  his  self-denying  labors  and  his  indomi- 
table perseverance,  which  have  made  this  institu- 
tion a  success  and  an  honor  to  the  Presbyterian 
Church.  It  has  more  students  than  Henry  Ken- 
dall College  in  the  Cherokee  Nation,  which  costs 
the  Northern  Presbyterian  Church  $16,000  an- 
nually ;  and  it  does  not  cost  the  Southern  Church 
$500. 

At  Antlers  we  have  a  high  school  of  two 
teachers  and  215  scholars ;  at  Cameron,  three 
teachers  and  135  scholars ;  at  Wapanucka,  two 
teachers  and  112  scholars.  Besides  these  high 
schools,  we  have  common  schools  at   Goodland, 


Indians  and  Their  Territory  153 

Hugo,  Chish  Ok'tock,  Bennington,  Cold  Spring, 
Hamden,  Tulia  Hikia,  and  Shady  Point.  More  than 
1,200  pupils  annually  receive  instruction  at  our 
hands,  those  unable  to  pay  being  taught  absolutely 
free.  Dr.  Adoniram  Judson  passing  a  Christian  in- 
stitution said,  "  I  wish  I  had  a  million  dollars." 
A  friend  remarked,  "  If  you  had  it  would  soon  all 
go  into  foreign  missions."  "  No,  it  would  not,"  he 
replied  ;  "  I  would  establish  just  such  a  Christian 
institution  as  this  ;  for  such  furnish  the  seed  corn 
of  the  world."  If  any  philanthropist  agrees  with 
this  estimate  of  Christian  education,  will  he  heed 
and  help  the  effort  to  establish  a  Christian  indus- 
trial school  at  Goodland  Church  where  the  Indians 
in  receiving  their  allotments  are  donating  a  part 
of  their  land  for  this  purpose ;  and  Mrs.  Gibbons 
is  appealing  for  a  modest  sum  to  inaugurate  the 
movement  in  this  strong  recital  of  facts : 

"  Eight  years  ago,  the  Southern  Board  of  Home 
Missions  reopened  the  school  here,  and  it  has 
steadily  grown  in  numbers  until  now  the  enroll- 
ment for  this  term  is  104,  sixty-eight  being  Indian 
children.  For  several  years  it  has  been  the  desire 
of  the  church  to  establish  an  industrial  school 
here,  one  in  which  these  boys  and  girls  can  be 
taught  to  fit  themselves  for  positions  of  useful- 
ness, to  apply  their  energies  in  the  right  direction. 
Children  from  other  places  have  been  boarded  by 
these  Christian  people,  some  of  them  denying 
themselves  the  comfort  of  life  to  give  some  orphan 
child  the  benefits  of  a  Christian  school. 

"  Five  years  ago,  we  asked  the  Indian  Council  to 


154  At  Our  Own  Door 

appropriate  money  to  board  a  limited  number  of 
pupils,  and  through  the  influence  of  Dr.  Craig,  the 
Home  Mission  Board  promised  money  to  build  a 
home  for  the  children,  but  the  council  never  made 
the  appropriation  for  us  until  this  year,  and  they 
only  allow  us  seven  dollars  per  month,  not  more 
than  enough  to  feed  them.  We  have  forty  Choc- 
taw children  boarded  by  the  government,  and  at 
least  a  dozen  more  kept  in  private  homes. 

"  Now,  we  have  the  children,  but  no  boarding- 
house.  Our  schoolroom  is  very  small,  devoid  of 
furniture,  with  the  exception  of  some  straight 
pine  benches.  In  our  church  we  teach  five  grades ; 
this  building  is  old,  out  of  repair,  very  uncomfort- 
able in  cold  weather.  Our  boarding-house  can 
keep  only  fifteen,  the  rest  are  scattered  around  in 
different  homes ;  twenty-three  are  now  in  the 
home  of  our  good  Indian  preacher,  Silas  Bacon. 
Both  he  and  his  good  wife  are  giving  all  their  time, 
their  talents  and  their  lives,  to  these  children,  and 
they  keep  several  orphans  that  will  receive  no 
board  money,  as  they  came  in  after  the  contract 
was  full,  and  Mr.  Bacon  would  not  send  them 
away. 

"  Among  our  children,  the  Indian  pupils,  we  have 
thirteen  without  either  parent,  twenty-eight  with 
only  one  parent  living.  Many  of  these  children 
come  to  us  homeless,  clothesless,  and  to  a  great  ex- 
tent, Christless  ;  coming  to  us  from  isolated  places, 
where  Sunday-schools  are  unknown.  We  have 
grown  boys  and  girls  who  never  attended  a  Sun- 
day-school, never  knew  a  prayer  before  they  came 


Indians  and  Their  Territory  155 

here.  But  they  are  noble  children,  obedient,  studi- 
ous and  quiet  at  all  times,  ever  ready  to  listen  to 
our  Bible  teaching,  to  be  taught  our  catechisms 
and  to  sing  our  religious  songs.  Many  of  them 
have  bright  minds,  all  they  need  is  proper  training. 
As  a  rule  the  full  blood  Indian  child  is  easy  to 
control,  and  if  one  wins  their  affection  they  are 
easily  led ; — not  much  trouble  to  instruct  them 
after  they  learn  our  language,  which  they  usually 
do  in  from  one  to  two  years. 

"  We  are  striving  to  get  the  Industrial  School 
started,  and  by  the  advice  of  Dr.  Morris  we  make 
this  appeal  to  the  churches,  aid  societies,  the  Sun- 
day-schools and  the  Christian  people  of  our  coun- 
try to  help  us  start  it.  The  land  has  been  promised 
to  us  by  the  Indians  themselves,  if  we  can  get  the 
building." 

Who  will  hear  and  respond  to  this  earnest, 
pathetic  appeal  ? 

This  brief  sketch  would  be  incomplete  without 
an  account  of  the  Territory  itself,  its  conditions 
and  prospects : 

2.    The  Indian  Tekritory 

No  section  of  the  United  States  has  been  so  gen- 
erally misunderstood  as  the  Indian  Territory.  Many 
geographies  are  still  in  existence  which  describe 
the  Western  section  (now  Oklahoma)  as  a  part  of 
"  The  Great  American  Desert."  This  quondam 
"  desert "  is  now  covered  with  golden  grain,  and 
its  rich  pasture  lands  are  feeding  "  the  cattle  upon 
a  thousand  hills."    These  prairie  lands  are  in- 


156  At  Our  Own  Door 

exhaustible  in  fertility,  and  the  most  thoroughly 
improved  section  of  the  country,  making  Okla- 
homa and  the  Indian  Territory  the  paradise  of  the 
"West.  It  is  by  no  means  all  prairie.  Great  forests 
skirt  the  plains,  composed  largely  of  post-oak  groves, 
interspersed  with  pecans.  Kivers  and  mountains, 
valleys  and  hills,  cultivated  fields  and  primeval 
forests,  mingle  together  in  such  proportions  not 
only  to  relieve  the  monotony,  but  furnish  as  beauti- 
ful landscapes  as  can  be  found  anywhere  in  our 
country,  marvellously  rich  in  rare  scenery.  The 
traveller  crosses  the  border  of  the  Indian  Terri- 
tory, expecting  to  see  the  line  of  demarkation 
very  plain  between  civilization  and  the  land  of  the 
untutored  savage.  As  the  train  dashes  along,  he 
keeps  his  eye  on  the  window  for  the  first  sight  of 
"  the  red  man  "  ;  but  he  looks  in  vain.  Where  he 
expects  to  see  the  Indian  hut  or  little  patch  of  the 
barbarian,  he  sees  broad,  cultivated  fields,  as  rich 
in  many  places  as  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi. 
Where  he  expects  the  Indian  wigwam,  he  discovers 
great  cities  with  brick  stores  and  stone  banks.  One 
can  live  ten  years  in  the  Indian  Territory  without 
seeing  an  Indian.  They  do  not  haunt  the  villages 
and  have  no  special  yearning  for  railroads. 
Along  the  streams  and  out  in  the  forests  there  are 
Indians  ;  but  they  are  such  a  small  per  cent,  of  the 
population  as  to  make  the  Indian  Territory  a  mis- 
nomer. There  is  no  Indian  Territory  except  on  the 
map ;  and  it  is  almost  as  great  a  myth  "  as  the  Great 
American  Desert."  It  is  true  there  are  fifty  thou- 
sand Indians  in  the  Territory ;  but,  according  to 


Indians  and  Their  Territory  157 

the  United  States  census,  it  contains  nearly  five 
hundred  thousand  inhabitants,  making  ten  whites 
to  every  Indian.  It  is  the  whitest  section  of  the 
South !  No  other  Southern  State  contains  ten 
whites  to  any  other  citizen  !  It  may  surprise  many 
people  to  learn  that  Arizona  contains  almost  as 
many  Indians  as  the  Indian  Territory.  Many 
other  "  reservations  "  contain  even  more ;  for  of 
the  250,000  Indians  in  the  United  States,  only  one- 
fifth  are  in  the  Territory.  Even  of  these  50,000, 
very  few  are  full  bloods.  The  great  majority  are 
descendants  of  "  half  breeds  "  and  as  white  as  the 
average  Caucasian.  They  would  scarcely  be  enu- 
merated as  Indians,  but  for  the  fact  that  it  gives 
them  a  claim  upon  the  fine  lands  that  are  now 
being  allotted  to  the  Indians  by  the  government. 
Intermarriage  will  soon  solve  the  Indian  problem 
in  the  Indian  Territory. 

It  is  said  that  an  Irish  historian  devoted  a  chap- 
ter in  his  History  of  Ireland  to  "  Snakes."  The 
entire  chapter  reads,  "  There  are  no  snakes  in  Ire- 
land." The  time  is  not  far  distant  when  the  his- 
torian will  write  his  chapter  on  the  Indian 
Territory  in  these  words,  "  There  are  no  Indians 
in  the  Indian  Territory." 

It  has  been  said  that  "  the  Indians  are  the  rich- 
est nation  and  the  poorest  people  on  earth."  The 
strange  paradox  is  true.  In  their  homes  they  have 
but  few  of  the  comforts  of  life  which  the  indi- 
vidual can  enjoy.  And  yet  the  vast  revenues 
accumulating  to  their  credit  and  for  their  benefit 
are  enormous  and  increasing  with  each  passing 


158  At  Our  Own  Door 

year.  The  sources  of  these  revenues  are  various. 
The  royalty  on  the  coal  mines  of  the  Choctaw 
nation  amounts  to  $200,000  yearly.  Every  white 
man  in  the  Territory  is  required  to  pay  a  "  permit  " 
of  five  dollars  a  year  for  the  privilege  of  living  in 
the  reservation.  These  are  just  specimens  of  their 
enormous  income.  This  money  cannot  be  dis- 
tributed to  the  individual.  It  would  be  a  curse  to 
most.  But  it  can  be  used  for  the  benefit  of  the 
nation.  Consequently,  any  Indian  child  who  is 
willing  can  be  educated  at  the  public  expense. 
Board,  tuition,  and  in  many  instances  clothing  and 
all  the  necessaries  of  life,  are  furnished  for  their 
education  and  equipment  of  the  children  for  the 
duties  of  citizenship.  The  United  States  govern- 
ment has  schools  distributed  throughout  the  coun- 
try, where  they  are  taught ;  and  many  religious 
organizations,  recognizing  that  secular  education 
without  moral  training  is  a  curse  to  them,  have 
founded  denominational  schools  for  their  religious 
instruction. 

The  policy  of  the  government  in  the  past,  how- 
ever good  in  intention  and  worthy  in  effort  to 
discharge  its  obligations  to  these  wards  of  the 
nation,  has  not  always  been  wise,  judged  by  re- 
sults. The  system  of  distributing  "rations"  in- 
discriminately to  needy  and  otherwise  alike,  has 
reared  a  race  of  paupers,  thriftless,  idle,  and  a 
menace  to  the  peace  and  morality  of  the  country. 
The  plan  of  inducing  a  child,  accustomed  to  the 
hardships  of  poverty,  to  leave  a  home  of  wretch- 
edness and   enter  a    government  school,   where 


Indians  and  Their  Territory  159 

every  comfort  is  provided  and  every  want  antici- 
pated, translated  suddenly  from  squalor  to  com- 
parative luxury,  is  not  calculated  to  produce  the 
highest  type  of  citizen.  Education  is  not  in  itself 
a  panacea  for  all  the  ills  of  life.  It  is  very  ques- 
tionable whether  it  is  a  blessing  in  any  sense, 
unless  carried  on  along  moral  and  religious  as  well 
as  secular  lines.  Many  of  these  Indian  children 
after  several  years  of  luxury  and  education,  re- 
turn to  their  wretched  homes  and  savage  life. 

Under  the  Dawes  Commission,  the  government 
is  pursuing  a  wiser  policy,  and  will  probably  solve 
the  Indian  problem  in  the  near  future.  This 
commission  is  allotting  the  lands  now  held  in  com- 
mon, so  that  each  individual  will  soon  come  into 
possession  of  his  inheritance  and  can  use  it  or 
abuse  it,  according  to  his  inclination.  It  is  esti- 
mated that  each  Indian,  man,  woman  (and  child 
yet  unborn  and  until  the  registration  books  are 
closed),  will  receive  in  the  allotment  over  five 
hundred  acres  (according  to  value  in  different  sec- 
tions), and  can  sell  all  except  one  hundred  and 
sixty  acres,  which  the  government  requires  him  to 
keep  for  twenty-one  years  as  a  homestead.  As 
soon  as  this  is  done,  most  of  the  lands  will  pass 
into  the  hands  of  the  white  people,  the  Indians 
retaining  only  their  homestead,  which  will  be 
ample  for  the  needs  of  most  of  them.  It  is  often 
asked  why  the  government  delays  this  allotment 
year  after  year,  and  thus  retards  the  development 
of  the  country.  Several  reasons  might  be  as- 
signed :    The  Indians  themselves  are  allowed  the 


i6o  At  Our  Own  Door 

privilege  of  ratifying  the  terms  of  the  treaties, 
and  these  must  be  submitted  back  and  forth  be- 
tween Congress  and  the  Indian  tribal  legislatures. 
A  still  more  potent  reason,  perhaps,  lies  in  the  fact 
that  a  few  influential  individuals  are  enriching 
themselves  at  the  expense  of  the  rest,  and  have 
sufficient  influence  to  delay  the  matter.  Accord- 
ing to  the  present  system  any  Indian  (or  white 
man  married  to  an  Indian)  may  cultivate  or  use 
all  the  land  fenced  or  improved  by  him,  and  until 
the  lands  are  allotted  in  severalty.  The  full  blood 
Indian  takes  little  or  no  advantage  of  this  pro- 
vision. But  the  mixed  breed  and  white  men  with 
Indian  wives  fence  in  large  areas,  and  are  getting 
rich  from  its  use.  It  is  said  that  one  man  alone 
has  a  revenue  of  $50,000  annually  from  his  "  im- 
proved lands."  Just  as  soon  as  the  allotment  is 
made,  it  can  readily  be  seen  that  his  share  will  be 
reduced  to  five  hundred  acres.  These  men  are 
very  naturally  opposed  to  the  allotment,  and  are 
opposing  by  all  means  in  their  power.  The  value 
of  their  lands  offers  a  temptation  to  adventurers 
to  marry  these  Indian  girls  for  the  sake  of  their  in- 
heritance. In  order  to  prevent  such  matrimonial 
investments,  the  Choctaw  Legislature  has  placed 
the  license  fee  at  one  thousand  dollars  for  a  white 
man  to  marry  an  Indian  and  share  the  allotment. 
Another  law  passed  by  the  tribal  legislature  im- 
poses the  penalty  of  death  upon  any  Indian  who 
sells  any  part  of  his  land  to  a  white  man.  While 
it  is  impossible  to  acquire  lands  at  present,  yet  the 
United  States  government  has  made  provision  that 


Indians  and  Their  Territory  161 

lots  in  any  incorporated  town  may  be  sold  to 
aliens.  This,  however,  is  only  a  "  quit  claim " 
which  the  purchaser  obtains  from  a  citizen ;  and 
when  the  commission  appears  to  make  titles  from 
the  United  States  government,  it  is  necessary  to 
pay  a  small  amount  to  the  government  and  obtain 
the  property  by  "  letters  patent." 

The  material  development  of  the  country  is  mar- 
vellous. New  railroads  are  not  simply  being  pro- 
jected but  are  being  built,  in  every  direction. 
Coal  deposits  and  oil  fields  are  being  discovered, 
and  options  are  being  sought  by  great  corporations 
from  the  tribal  legislatures  for  developing  these 
natural  resources.  This  is  causing  population  to 
pour  into  the  Territory  from  every  part  of  the 
United  States. 

It  is  said  that  Henry  Clay  once  climbed  the  Al- 
leghanies  and  put  himself  in  the  attitude  of  one 
listening,  and  exclaimed,  "I  hear  the  tramp  of 
millions ;  they  are  the  myriads  who  are  to  occupy 
and  populate  our  great  Western  country  !  "  Great, 
prophetic  soul,  who  saw  the  future  glory  and  de- 
velopment of  our  country ;  and  yet  it  has  gone  far 
beyond  his  vivid  imagination !  The  human  fancy 
can  scarcely  forecast  the  future  of  the  Indian 
Territory !  The  next  United  States  census  will 
show  fully  two  millions  of  people  in  that  great 
section !  There  are  perhaps  one  hundred  towns 
and  cities  in  the  Territory  to-day,  containing,  on 
an  average  more  than  one  thousand  inhabitants 
each.  They  spring  into  existence  under  our  very 
eyes!    Between  the  visits  of  the  Secretary  of 


i62  At  Our  Own  Door 

home  missions  (six  months  apart),  towns  had 
sprung  up  which  had  no  existence  in  thought  at 
the  time  of  the  first  visit.  They  are  not  mush- 
room growths,  as  one  might  imagine.  They  are 
buildings  of  brick  and  stone,  and,  in  many  in- 
stances, of  rare  architectural  designs. 

It  furnishes  the  Presbyterian  church  the  greatest 
opportunity,  perhaps,  which  will  ever  come  to  her 
in  the  twentieth  century.  The  country  is  preju- 
diced in  favor  of  the  Presbyterian  church  in  many 
sections  by  reason  of  the  splendid  work  done  in 
behalf  of  the  Indians.  Nearly  all  of  these  towns 
contain  a  fair  proportion  of  Presbyterians.  It  is 
true  there  are  difficulties,  and  salaries  are  small ; 
but  where  is  the  man,  called  of  God  to  preach  the 
Gospel,  who  would  not  choose  to  spend  his  ener- 
gies in  the  midst  of  the  living  masses  of  unevan- 
gelized  people  at  a  sacrifice,  amid  self-denials, 
rather  than  in  a  well  feathered  nest,  and  preach  to 
empty  pews  ?  The  writer  has  stated,  again  and 
again  that  if  he  were  at  the  beginning  of  his  min- 
istry, with  his  present  knowledge  of  conditions,  he 
could  not  be  chained  on  this  side  of  the  Mississippi. 
If  the  young  men  will  give  "  the  dew  of  their 
youth  "  to  the  work,  and  the  church  will  furnish 
the  means,  we  may  confidently  expect,  within  a 
few  years,  that  the  Synod  of  the  Indian  Territory 
will  not  only  be  a  possibility,  but  one  of  the  im- 
portant factors  in  the  development  of  the  church, 
and  not  by  any  means  the  least  in  the  sisterhood 
of  synods. 


vm 

THE  GREAT  WEST 

The  fictitious  boundaries  of  America  invented 
to  impress  the  imagination  with  the  idea  of  vast- 
ness  might  with  better  propriety  be  employed  to 
mark  the  limitations  of  the  West :  "  Bounded  on 
the  north  by  the  Aurora  Borealis,  on  the  east  by  the 
rising  sun,  on  the  south  by  the  Equator,  and  on  the 
west  by  the  Day  of  Judgment'*  The  public 
speaker  cannot  bring  himself  in  his  addresses  to 
say  tamely  "  the  "West " ;  it  is  invariably  "  the 
great  West."  No  man  has  succeeded  better  in  im- 
pressing the  public  with  a  sense  of  its  greatness 
and  importance  than  Dr.  Josiah  Strong :  "  The 
"West  is  characterized  by  largeness.  Mountains, 
rivers,  railways,  ranches,  herds,  crops,  business 
transactions,  ideas ;  even  men's  virtues  and  vices 
are  cyclopean.  All  seem  to  have  taken  a  touch  of 
vastness  from  the  mighty  horizon.  "Western 
stories  are  on  the  same  large  scale,  so  large,  indeed 
that  it  often  takes  a  dozen  eastern  men  to  believe 
one  of  them." 

It  is  generally  supposed  that  the  Mississippi 
River  divides  the  east  and  west  into  somewhat 
equal  areas.  But  as  a  matter  of  fact  the  area  be- 
yond the  Mississippi  is  two-and-a-half  times  the 
size  of  that  on  the  east.    To  divide  our  country 

163 


164  At  Our  Own  Door 

into  equal  parts,  it  would  be  necessary  to  begin  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Rio  Grande  on  the  Mexican 
border  and  run  directly  north,  throwing  a  large 
part  of  Texas  on  the  East  and  all  immediately 
north  of  it  as  far  as  Canada.  In  present  parlance 
the  West  means  everything  beyond  the  Mississippi ; 
but  it  has  not  always  been  the  case ;  and  even  now 
hundreds  of  miles  beyond  the  Mississippi,  the 
West  is  still  far  beyond. 

"  Nothing  better  illustrates  the  vast  and  rapid 
expansion  of  America  during  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury than  the  history  of  '  Sectional  Nomenclature.' 
'  The  West '  has  had  a  new  definition  in  every  de- 
cade. '  To  the  Westward,'  named  in  the  preamble 
of  the  Connecticut  Society,  was  the  State  of  New 
York,  '  northwestward '  was  Vermont.  Of  a  much 
earlier  period,  it  is  related  on  good  authority  that 
a  surveyor  was  commissioned  in  Massachusetts  to 
lay  out  a  highroad  from  Cambridge  towards  Al- 
bany, as  far  as  the  public  good  required.  His  road 
came  to  an  end  twelve  miles  from  Boston  in  the 
town  of  Weston,  and  the  report  made  to  the 
government  was,  that  the  work  had  been  pushed 
into  the  wilderness  as  far  as  the  public  need  would 
ever  require.  A  good  many  pieces  have  been 
added  to  that  road,  and  before  each  such  addition 
*  the  West '  has  steadily  retreated.  At  different 
times  it  was  on  the  banks  of  the  Charles,  the 
Connecticut  and  the  Hudson ;  on  the  shores  of  the 
Great  Lakes,  in  the  Mississippi  Valley,  on  the  tops 
of  the  Rockies,  and  it  stopped  at  the  Pacific  only 
because  it  could  go  no  farther.     Beyond  that  line 


The  Great  West  165 

the  East  began  again,  Nor  has  this  vague  con- 
ception for  the  "West  been  always  due  to  the  pro- 
vincial short-sightedness  of  New  England.  The 
writer  remembers,  not  twenty  years  ago,  visiting 
a  primary  school  in  Southern  Wyoming,  from 
whose  windows  the  peaks  of  the  Kockies  were 
visible.  To  his  question  addressed  to  the  children, 
how  many  of  them  were  born  in  "Wyoming,  only 
two  hands  went  up.  To  the  further  question,  how 
many  of  them  would  like  to  grow  up  in  "Wyoming 
and  help  to  make  it  a  grand  State,  not  a  hand  was 
raised ;  and  when  the  catechism  was  brought  to  a 
close  with  the  bewildered  inquiry,  '  Where  then 
are  you  going  ?  '  with  a  united  shout  they  replied 
'  West '  "  (Leavening  the  Nation). 

The  original  thirteen  states  occupied  only  a  thin 
strip  of  land  along  the  Atlantic  coast  with  unop- 
ened territory  stretching  towards  the  Mississippi 
south  of  the  Ohio.  From  the  earliest  history  of 
the  country  aggressive  men  have  always  been  com- 
pelled to  wage  a  fierce  conflict  with  others  strenu- 
ously opposing  "the  annexation  of  more  terri- 
tory." No  event  in  our  national  history  has  ex- 
erted a  greater  influence  on  the  destiny  of  the 
country  than  the  famous  "  Ordinance  of  1787." 
Embracing  the  states  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  Michigan, 
Wisconsin  and  Illinois,  a  section  of  250,000  square 
miles,  wedge-shaped,  and  from  that  fact  known  as 
"  the  keystone  of  the  American  commonwealth," 
was  added  to  the  territory  of  the  United  States ; 
and  from  that  moment  "  Expansion  "  began.  Its 
influence  on  our  national  life  was  not  more  potent 


i66  At  Our  Own  Door 

than  on  the  church.  It  was  a  new  birth  of  the 
home  missionary  enterprise  of  the  church,  calling 
for  "  expansion  "  of  the  spiritual  kingdom  to  keep 
pace  with  the  march  of  empire.  Population 
poured  in  to  possess  this  marvellously  rich  land. 
Home  missionaries  entered  to  win  new  territory 
for  Christ  and  the  church. 

The  nineteenth  century  opened  with  the  Missis- 
sippi River  as  our  western  boundary.  The  Louisi- 
ana Purchase  of  1803,  the  Annexation  of  Texas  in 
1845,  the  Mexican  Treaty  of  1848  carried  our  pos- 
sessions to  the  Pacific  and  multiplied  our  territory 
two  and  a  half  times.  This  created  "  The  Great 
West." 

"Of  the  twenty-two  states  and  territories  west 
of  the  Mississippi,  only  three  are  as  small  as  all  JSTew 
England.  Montana  would  stretch  from  Boston  on 
the  east  to  Cleveland  on  the  west,  and  extend  far 
enough  south  to  include  Richmond,  Va.  Idaho,  if 
laid  down  in  the  east,  would  touch  Toronto,  Can- 
ada, on  the  north,  and  Raleigh,  North  Carolina,  on 
the  south,  whilst  its  southern  boundary  line  is  long 
enough  to  stretch  from  Washington  City  to  Colum- 
bus, Ohio ;  and  California,  if  on  our  Atlantic  Sea- 
board, would  extend  from  the  southern  line  of 
Massachusetts  to  the  lower  part  of  South  Carolina, 
or  if  in  Europe,  it  would  extend  from  London 
across  France  and  well  into  Spain.  New  Mexico  is 
larger  than  the  United  Kingdom  of  Great  Britian 
and  Ireland.  The  greatest  measurement  of  Texas 
is  nearly  equal  to  the  distance  from  New  Orleans  to 
Chicago,  or  from  Chicago  to  Boston.    Lay  Texas 


The  Great  West  167 

on  the  face  of  Europe,  and  this  giant  with  his 
head  resting  on  the  mountains  of  Norway  (directly 
east  of  the  Orkney  Islands)  with  one  palm  cover- 
ing London,  the  other  Warsaw,  would  stretch  him- 
self down  across  the  kingdom  of  Denmark,  across 
the  Empire  of  Germany  and  Austria,  across  north- 
ern Italy  and  lave  his  feet  in  the  Mediterranean. 
The  two  Dakotas  might  be  carved  into  half  a 
dozen  kingdoms  of  Greece ;  or  if  they  were  divided 
into  twenty-six  equal  counties,  we  might  lay  down 
the  two  kingdoms  of  Judea  and  Israel  in  each  " 
(Our  Country). 

In  his  address  to  the  General  Assembly  of  1901, 
Dr.  C.  L.  Thompson,  Secretary  of  home  missions, 
urged  the  importance  of  the  west  as  occupying  a 
vital  position  in  the  superstructure  of  the  govern- 
ment :  "  The  work  of  the  Central  West  is  to  build 
the  piers  on  which  the  Nation's  weight  must  rest. 
I  looked  recently  at  the  new  bridge  over  the  East 
Kiver.  The  shore  approaches  are  long,  the  cables 
are  anchored  far  back.  But  standing  on  granite 
feet  out  in  the  river  are  the  great  steel  piers,  that 
will  hold  the  strain  of  the  mighty  structure.  Our 
national  life  has  long  approaches.  It  is  anchored 
far  back  in  traditions  and  constitutions.  But  the 
young  states  of  the  west  must  stand  like  steel 
piers  on  granite  foundations,  if  the  arch  of  the 
State  shall  stand  secure  from  shore  to  shore. 
All  honor  to  the  men  who  build.  And  when  we 
think  of  the  heroes  of  wars,  let  us  not  forget  the 
missionaries  who  toil  on  disgraceful  stipends — 
making  Christian  the  States,  that  will  hold  the 


l68  At  Our  Own  Door 

balance   of    power.      They   are   the   true   nation 
builders." 

1.  In  this  account  of  the  West  it  is  necessary 
to  confine  our  scrutiny  to  that  section  lying  within 
the  bounds  of  the  Southern  Church.  Only  half  a 
century  has  passed  since  the  Republic  of  Texas  cast 
in  its  lot  among  the  States  of  the  Union,  contain- 
ing at  that  time  about  200,000  people ;  and  it  has 
gone  forward  marvellously,  striding  in  its  seven 
league  boots  to  the  very  front,  claiming  a  popula- 
tion at  present  of  three  and  a  half  millions,  equal 
to  the  entire  country  at  the  time  of  the  American 
Revolution.  The  orator  is  yet  unborn  who  can 
make  the  average  citizen  appreciate  by  means  of 
statistics  and  comparisons  anything  of  its  vast 
area,  magnificent  resources  and  future  possibilities. 

{a)  In  size  it  contains  262,000  square  miles, 
larger  than  the  North  West  Territory  added  by 
the  Ordinance  of  1787.  If  Texas  were  carved  up 
into  separate  States  it  would  make  240  Rhode 
Islands,  112  Dela wares,  thirty-one  Massachusetts, 
six  Kentuckies,  or  four  Georgias  !  Place  it  east 
of  the  Mississippi,  and  it  will  cover  Mississippi,  Al- 
abama, Georgia,  South  Carolina,  ISTorth  Carolina 
and  Tennessee. 

(b)  The  greatness  of  area  is  even  exceeded  by 
the  greatness  of  resources.  Her  lands  are  of  every 
conceivable  variety.  Possibly  the  United  States 
contains  no  soil  but  can  be  duplicated  by  Texas. 
The  vast  acreage  taken  as  a  whole  is  doubtless  the 
richest  in  the  world.  Every  variety  of  crops  can 
be  grown  on  her  fertile  valleys  and  broad  prairies. 


The  Great  West  169 

Her  cattle  ranches  are  the  marvel  of  the  world. 
Her  oil  fields  just  opening  up  are  fabulous.  Her 
cotton  crop  is  now  larger  than  the  entire  cotton 
crop  of  the  United  States  at  the  beginning  of  the 
Civil  War.  She  now  furnishes  one-third  of  all  the 
cotton  raised  in  the  United  States,  and  the  time  may 
come  when  she  will  drive  her  sister  states  out  of 
the  cotton  market,  and  undertake  the  contract  for 
supplying  the  world.  Her  minerals  are  as  yet  an 
unknown  quantity.  In  1860,  Texas  had  about  300 
miles  of  railroad  ;  at  present  she  has  nearly  11,000 
miles,  more  than  any  State  in  the  Union  except  Illi- 
nois and  Pennsylvania,  which  have  each  about  the 
same  amount. 

According  to  Dr.  Strong  in  "  Our  Country " 
Texas  is  capable  of  supporting  the  entire  popula- 
tion of  the  United  States.  "  After  allowing,  say, 
50,000  square  miles  for  '  desert,'  Texas  could  have 
produced  all  our  food  crops  in  1879 — grown  as  we 
have  seen,  on  164,215  square  miles  of  land — could 
have  raised  the  world's  supply  of  cotton,  12,000,000 
bales,  at  one  bale  to  the  acre,  on  19,000  square 
miles  and  then  have  had  remaining  for  a  cattle 
ranch  a  territory  larger  than  the  State  of  New 
York.  Place  the  population  of  the  United  States 
in  1890  all  in  Texas,  and  it  would  not  be  as  dense 
as  that  of  Italy  ;  and  if  it  were  as  crowded  as  Eng- 
land, this  one  State  would  contain  129,000,000 
souls ! " 

At  present  her  school  lands  amounting  to  thou- 
sands of  square  miles  are  leased  by  great  cattle 
corporations  for  the  largest  ranches  in  the  world, 


lyo  At  Our  Own  Door 

but  the  influx  of  population  is  crowding  westward, 
and  as  these  leases  are  expiring  they  are  being 
opened  up  for  farming  purposes,  which  will  in  a 
few  years  decrease  the  grazing  lands  but  add  im- 
mensely to  the  agricultural  acreage  and  the  popu- 
lation of  the  country. 

(c)  The  country  has  its  silver  question,  negro 
problem,  immigration  peril,  but  Texas  has  prob- 
lems peculiarly  her  own.  Life  is  at  its  flood  tide 
in  Texas.  Business  opportunities  are  so  great,  that 
it  is  most  difficult  to  hold  back  the  entire  popula- 
tion from  being  engulfed  in  the  vortex  of  com- 
mercialism. For  many  years  the  State  has  been 
afflicted  with  a  most  undesirable  type  of  citizen- 
ship. It  has  been  the  asylum  for  the  criminal 
classes  from  all  the  older  States  in  the  Union.  To 
convert  them  from  lawlessness  and  assimilate  them 
into  the  body  politic  is  no  small  contract,  espe- 
cially as  most  of  them  are  isolated  from  the  restrain- 
ing and  moral  influences  of  home  life.  Add  to 
these  the  100,000  Mexicans  coming  across  the 
border  with  their  low  standard  of  morality  and 
their  idolatrous  rites  practiced  in  the  name  of  re- 
ligion, and  the  problem  becomes  still  more  compli- 
cated. 

{d)  The  church  must  face  all  these  conditions. 
Yet  in  spite  of  these  difficulties  and  obstacles  the 
Gospel  is  having  some  of  its  greatest  triumphs  in 
Texas.  Based  upon  the  oldest  records  of  religious 
work  in  Texas,  we  gather  the  following  facts  : 

Kev.  P.  H.  FuUen wider  was  the  father  of  Texas 
Presbyterianism ; 


The  Great  West  171 

Rev.  Hugh  Wilson,  the  great  organizer  and 
teacher ; 

Eev.  Dr.  Daniel  Baker,  the  great  evangelist,  who 
laid  the  foundations  of  religious  work  and  churches 
in  many  sections  and  made  Austin  College  the 
child  of  his  tenderest  care  ;  and  Rev.  J.  W.  Miller 
the  wise  counsellor  and  teacher. 

From  the  most  humble  beginning,  consider  the 
great  progress  of  Presbyterianism  in  Texas  by  a 
comparison  of  the  past  fifty  years- 
Just  fifty  years  ago — in  1853 — when  there  was 
a  total  of  72,000  communicants  in  the  Southern 
Presbyterian  Church,  Texas  contained  only  700 — 
less  than  one  one-hundredth  of  the  whole  number. 
In  1903  Texas  had  over  20,000,  out  of  a  total  of 
235,000 — nearly  one-tenth  of  the  whole.  Fifty 
years  ago  Texas  contained  twenty-five  Presby- 
terian ministers  and  three  small  presbyteries. 
Now  in  half  a  century  this  little  handful,  like 
Jacob's  company,  has  become  "  two  bands."  The 
three  presbyteries  have  grown  to  ten,  and  the 
twenty-five  ministers  have  multiplied  into  187.  In 
this  same  period  the  strength  of  Presbyterianism 
has  increased  nearly  thirtyfold  in  Texas,  while  in 
the  country  east  of  the  Mississippi,  it  has  increased 
only  threefold.  Presbyterianism  has  grown  twice 
as  fast  in  Texas  as  the  population,  the  latter  in- 
creasing fifteenfold  and  the  Church  thirtyfold. 
If  we  add  to  this  the  three  thousand  communi- 
cants of  the  Northern  Presbyterian  Church  and 
the  Cumberland  Presbyterian  Church  (more  than 
equal  to  the  Southern)  we  may  safely  say,  that 


172  At  Our  Own  Door 

Texas  contains  fifty  thousand  Presbyterians.  It  is 
a  matter  of  great  surprise  to  learn  that  Texas  con- 
tains more  Presbyterian  churches  than  any  South- 
ern synod,  except  Virginia,  but  that  synod  is  com- 
posed of  three  States,  Virginia,  West  Virginia  and 
Maryland.  The  synod  of  Virginia  leads  with  469 
churches,  while  Texas  contains  390.  North  Caro- 
lina with  the  largest  Presbyterian  membership  of 
any  Southern  State  is  a  close  second  with  386.  It 
will  thus  be  seen  that  no  money  which  has  been 
contributed  to  religious  purposes  has  produced 
more  liberal  returns  than  that  expended  on  Texas  ; 
and  it  is  now  being  repaid  with  compound  interest. 
Fifty  years  ago  Texas  Presbyterians  gave  to  all 
the  causes  of  benevolence  less  than  $6,000.  Now 
in  just  half  a  century  they  are  giving  $260,000 — 
more  than  fortyfold.  By  actual  calculation  Texas 
is  leading  the  whole  church  in  liberality.  The 
Synod  of  Virginia  with  43,000  members  gives  the 
largest  aggregate,  $423,127,  an  average  of  $9.74 
per  member.  Texas  comes  next  in  the  total 
amount.  Its  20,336  members  gave  $258,412— 
being  $12,21  per  member.  Kentucky  and  South 
Carolina  have  each  about  the  same  membership  as 
Texas  ;  yet  Kentucky  reports  only  $188,049,  and 
South  Carolina  $144,209.  The  money  expended 
on  Texas  from  the  home  mission  treasury  comes 
back  to  the  church  with  interest,  as  Texas  now  con- 
tributes more  to  foreign  missions  than  she  draws 
for  her  vast  home  mission  field. 

"  Who  can  count  the  dust  of  Jacob,  or  number 
the  fourth  part  of  Israel  ?  "    But  the  time  is  coming 


The  Great  West  173 

when  Texas  will  far  outnumber  Israel  in  her  palm- 
iest days.  Texas  will  one  day  contain  as  many 
people  as  the  United  States  now  numbers.  If  the 
present  rate  of  increase  continues,  and  the  church 
can  furnish  the  men  and  means  for  still  greater 
aggressiveness,  we  may  confidently  expect  with  the 
blessing  of  God,  that  the  time  will  come  when 
Texas  will  contain  more  Presbyterians  than  can 
be  reckoned  at  present  in  the  entire  Southern 
Church. 

In  his  first  address  and  publication  on  home 
missions,  the  present  Secretary  said :  "  As  goes 
the  United  States  so  goes  the  world  ;  as  goes  the 
West  so  goes  the  United  States ;  and  Texas  is  a 
tremendous  factor  in  the  west ;  so  that  Texas  may 
play  no  mean  part  in  influencing  the  destiny  of  the 
world  in  the  future.  Alexander  the  Great  wept 
for  more  worlds  to  conquer  but  the  Presbyterian 
Church  might  well  be  content  for  awhile,  if  it 
could  conquer  the  great  Empire  State  of  the  West 
for  Christ."  The  east  must  evangelize  Texas,  or 
this  mighty  giant  may  turn  on  us  a  current  of  un- 
godliness, which  will  shake  the  foundations  of  our 
civilization  as  the  vandal  hordes  of  the  north 
overturned  the  civilization  of  the  Roman  Empire. 
In  Texas  it  is  now  "  Flood  Tide  "  and  we  "  must 
take  the  current  when  it  serves  or  lose  our  ven- 
tures.'' Texas  is  another  name  for  opportunity  ; 
and  opportunity  spells  r-e-s-p-o-n-s-i-b-i-l-i-t-y.  If  we 
wait  "  till  the  harvest  is  past,"  "  the  summer  will 
be  ended,"  and  the  opportunity  gone  forever. 

2.     Passing  by  the  Indian  Territory,  the  most 


174  At  Our  Own  Door 

promising  home  mission  field  in  the  West,  which 
has  been  considered  in  connection  with  the  Indians, 
our  attention  is  claimed  next  by  Oklahoma,  its 
twin  Territory,  the  newest  frontier,  whose  develop- 
ment reads  like  a  tale  of  the  Arabian  Nights. 
Once  it  was  "  the  Great  American  Desert,"  which 
according  to  Dr.  Strong,  "  seems  to  have  become 
a  fugitive  and  vagabond  on  the  face  of  the  earth," 
now  it  is  called  Oklahoma,  which  means  "  Beauti- 
ful Land."  Few  people  perhaps  are  aware  of  the 
fact  that  Oklahoma  owes  its  existence  to  the 
Southern  Confederacy.  The  Creeks  and  Seminoles 
held  claims  upon  this  territory,  but  owing  to  their 
sympathies  with  the  South  in  the  war,  the  gov- 
ernment decided  that  these  claims  were  forfeited, 
and  their  land  reverted  to  the  government,  and 
became  a  part  of  the  "  public  lands."  It  contains 
about  40,000  square  miles,  being  larger  than  any 
New  England  State  and  only  one-third  less  than 
Georgia  or  Florida,  the  largest  States  east  of  the 
Mississippi. 

Before  the  northern  section  was  opened  in  April, 
1889,  several  organized  attempts  were  made  to 
force  entrance  into  this  "  Beautiful  Land "  and 
were  defeated  only  by  government  troops. 

No  worse  method  of  opening  the  country  could 
have  been  devised.  At  the  firing  of  a  signal  gun 
at  twelve  o'clock  the  mad  rush  began,  and  the  men 
or  women  who  drove  down  the  first  stake  had 
legal  titles  to  the  lot.  Richard  Harding  Davis  at- 
tempts a  description  of  this  confusion  confounded  : 
"  These  modern  pilgrims  stand  in  rows  twenty  feet 


The  Great  West  ij^ 

deep,  separated  from  the  Promised  Land,  not  by  an 
ocean,  but  by  a  line  sci'atched  in  the  earth  with 
the  point  of  a  soldier's  bayonet.  The  long  row 
toeing  this  line  are  bending  forward,  panting  with 
excitement,  and  looking  with  eager  eyes  towards 
this  new  Kingdom  ;  the  women  with  dresses  tucked 
up  to  their  knees,  the  men  stripped  of  coats  and 
waistcoats  for  the  coming  race. 

"  And  then,  a  trumpet  call,  answered  by  a  thou- 
sand hungry  yells  from  all  along  the  line,  and  hun- 
dreds of  men  and  women  on  foot  and  on  horse- 
back, break  away  across  the  prairie,  the  stronger 
pushing  down  the  weak,  and  those  on  horseback 
riding  over,  and  in  some  instances  killing,  those  on 
foot,  in  a  mad,  unseemly  race  for  something  they 
are  getting  for  nothing.  These  pilgrims  do  not 
drop  on  one  knee  to  give  thanks  decorously  as  did 
Columbus,  according  to  the  twenty  dollar  bills,  but 
fall  on  both  knees  and  hammer  stakes  into  the 
ground,  and  pull  them  up  again,  and  drive  them 
down  somewhere  else  at  the  place,  which  they  hope 
will  eventually  become  a  corner  lot,  facing  the 
post-office,  and  drag  up  the  next  man's  stake  and 
threaten  him  with  a  Winchester,  because  he  is  on 
their  land,  which  they  have  owned  for  the  last 
three  minutes." 

In  September,  1893,  the  Cherokee  Strip  was 
opened  in  the  same  manner  amid  still  wilder  scenes 
while  200,000  fought  and  struggled  at  the  risk  of 
life  and  limb  for  "a  claim"  in  this  new  country. 

Dr.  Clark  in  "  Leavening  the  Nation  "  gives  an 
account  of  an  eye-witness :    "  The  horsemen  and 


176  At  Our  Own  Door 

those  in  light  vehicles  were  lined  within  a  100  foot 
strip  along  the  border  for  miles,  and  the  heavier 
teams  loaded  with  merchandise  of  all  sorts,  lumber, 
household  goods,  tents,  buildings  fitted  and  ready 
to  be  put  together,  barrels  of  water,  stacks  of  cooked 
food  were  ranged  in  the  rear  to  follow  the  owners 
who  were  to  race  for  claims  and  town  lots.  On 
the  railway  were  forty  palace  stock  cars  attached 
to  three  engines.  As  this  train  moved  into  posi- 
tion, it  was  literally  filled  and  covered,  sides  and 
top,  with  living  humanity,  as  fast  as  men  and 
women  impelled  by  wildest  frenzy,  could  scramble 
into  place.  Every  part  of  the  cow-catchers  and 
engines  were  black  with  men  anxious  to  be  near 
the  front,  to  jump  and  get  a  little  advantage. 
Eleven  minutes  before  twelve  o'clock,  a  false  sig- 
nal was  given,  and  in  less  time  than  I  can  pen  it 
the  prairie  was  alive  with  the  myriad  racers.  The 
few  soldiers  were  utterly  powerless  to  stop  the 
rush,  and  away  in  the  distance  went  the  wild 
crowd.  The  rush  and  the  roar  of  thousands,  the 
whistle  of  engines,  and  the  rumbling  of  the  im- 
mense trains,  the  shouts  of  the  excited  drivers,  the 
noise  of  the  moving  wheels,  the  rearing  and  tossing 
and  neighing  of  excited  horses,  the  discharge  of 
firearms  in  every  direction  and  the  clouds  and  clouds 
of  dust,  raised  by  this  moving  mass,  all  conspired 
to  make  impressions  from  those  who  witnessed 
the  grand  and  awful  scene,  never  to  be  erased. 
Thousands  of  men  and  some  women  jumped  or  rolled 
or  fell  from  the  train,  running  at  the  rate  of  twelve 
or  fifteen  miles  an  hour,  to  secure  a  claim  or  lot. 


The  Great  West  177 

Some  broke  an  arm  or  leg  or  both ;  a  few  Avere 
killed.  Many  got  more  real  estate  upon  their  faces 
and  persons  than  they  had  to  keep,  or  sell  that 
night.  Others  were  rewarded  by  getting  splendid 
claims  and  valuable  lots  for  their  efforts  and  risks. 
The  Rock  Island  Right  of  Way  is  fenced  through 
the  strip  with  a  five  wired  barbed  fence.  Through 
this,  most  found  a  serious  difficulty  in  making  their 
way.  I  saw  one  man  with  a  big  piece  out  of  his 
trousers ;  he  said  he  hung  on  the  fence  and  vainly 
struggled  to  extricate  himself,  while  a  woman 
crawled  through  and  got  the  claim  he  was  after. 
One  man  leaped  the  fence,  struck  his  flag  in  a 
choice  piece  of  ground,  and  then  pulled  out  a  skirt 
and  sun-bonnet  from  under  his  coat  and  donned 
them.  Women's  rights  are  respected  on  the  western 
plains,  he  argued  with  himself.  Two  young  men 
and  a  young  woman  raced  for  the  same  claim.  She 
caught  in  a  fatal  wire.  The  rival  male  claimants 
staked  at  the  same  moment.  They  then  ran  and 
extricated  the  struggling  lass,  took  her  stake  and 
drove  it  into  the  ground,  pulled  theirs  up,  lifted  their 
hats  and  went  to  seek  other  quarter  sections." 

"  The  Minute  Man  on  the  Frontier  "  enriches  the 
description  with  the  following  incident :  "  In  one 
case  a  portly  woman,  taking  the  tortoise  plan  of 
slow  and  steady,  reached  the  best  section,  while 
the  men  still  hung  in  the  fence  like  victims  of  a 
butcher  bird.  It  is  said  of  one  young  woman,  who 
made  the  run  on  horseback,  that  reaching  a  town 
site  her  horse  stumbled  and  she  was  thrown  vio- 
lently to  the  ground  and  stunned.     A  passing  man 


178  At  Our  Own  Door 

jumped  off  his  horse  and  sprinkled  her  face  with 
water  from  his  canteen ;  and  as  she  revived,  the 
first  thing  she  said  was,  '  This  is  my  lot.' 

" '  No,  you  don't,'  said  the  man.  But  to  settle  it 
they  went  to  law,  and  the  court  decided  in  favor 
of  the  woman,  as  she  struck  the  ground  first." 

The  Southern  section  was  opened  in  August, 
1901,  the  towns  and  their  sites  being  sold  at  public 
auction  and  the  quarter  sections  assigned  by  lot- 
tery. Men  were  compelled  to  make  oath  that  they 
were  not  owners  of  land  elsewhere.  They  regis- 
tered at  El  Keno  and  Lawton  for  the  drawing,  and 
the  man  drawing  the  first  number  was  allowed  to 
take  choice  of  sections,  etc.  The  lots  of  the  pro- 
spective town  of  Lawton,  at  that  time  a  prairie, 
sold  at  auction  for  $600,000.  The  present  Secre- 
tary of  home  missions  visited  Lawton  two  months 
after  entering  office  and  saw  the  town  a  month  old, 
variously  estimated  at  from  10,000  to  20,000  thou- 
sand people.  Banks,  newspapers,  barrooms  and 
churches  began  their  career  under  tents ;  and  lum- 
ber was  selling  at  $30  a  thousand.  Of  the  eighty 
barrooms  which  sprang  up  like  magic,  one  adver- 
tised itself  handsomely  at  the  expense  of  the  tem- 
perance crusader,  as  flying  from  the  tent  pole  its 
flag  announced  :  "  All  Nations  Welcome  Except 
Carrie." 

Munsey's  Magazine  for  May,  1903,  gives  the  fol- 
lowing origin  of  the  town  of  Thomas :  On  board 
an  excursion  train  going  into  Oklahoma,  a  Town 
Site  Commission  was  formed.  The  train  was 
stopped  at  a  suitable  place,  and  the  site  laid  out. 


The  Great  West  179 

Before  night  the  town  had  a  saloon,  a  grocery,  a 
half-dozen  law  offices,  and  a  daily  paper  issued 
from  its  own  plant !  The  present  taxable  value  of 
Oklahoma  is  $60,000,000 ;  whilst  the  wheat  crop 
of  1902  amounts  to  25,000,000  bushels  and  the  corn 
crop  60,000,000.  During  1902  at  least  30,000  peo- 
ple settled  in  the  Territory. 

The  Committee  which  appeared  before  Congress 
to  urge  Statehood  was  able  to  make  the  following 
showing : 

Without  including  the  Indian  Territory  the  new 
State  would  exceed  twelve  States  of  the  Union  in 
size  and  nine  in  population,  while  in  resources  it 
could  boast  144  banks,  twenty-two  daily  newspa- 
pers, a  University  and  1,500  miles  of  railroad. 

Dr.  Clark  in  "  Leavening  the  Nation  "  sums  up 
the  religious  progress  of  Oklahoma  as  follows : 

"  Let  it  be  remembered  that  this  Territory  is  only 
thirteen  years  old.  '  The  oldest  girl  born  in  Okla- 
homa is  not  out  of  short  dresses.'  Between  1890 
and  1900  the  population  advanced  from  61,834  to 
398,245,  a  gain  of  500  per  cent.,  surpassing  all  other 
records  for  that  decade,  and  probably  for  any  dec- 
ade in  the  history  of  American  settlement.  The 
growth  of  religious  forces  has  kept  pace  with  the 
march  of  population.  Already  Oklahoma  has  200 
religious  organizations,  representing  a  church  mem- 
bership of  over  6,000.  More  than  eighty  Congre- 
gational churches  have  been  planted,  with  their  Sun- 
day-schools, Endeavor  Societies,  and  their  more  than 
3,000  communicants.  Thirty  Presbyterian  churches 
have  taken  a  good  start.    Baptists,  Methodists  and 


i8o  At  Our  Own  Door 

Episcopal  missions  are  represented  by  fifty  more. 
Colleges  and  academies  have  sprung  up  in  the  path 
of  these  religious  movements,  as  they  always  will." 

The  Southern  Church  only  entered  the  field  in 
1902  and  is  confining  its  operations  to  the  newer 
southern  section.  Its  evangelists  have  already  or- 
ganized several  churches,  and  are  preaching  regu- 
larly at  other  stations. 

"  The  Minute  Man  on  the  Frontier  "  says,  "  A 
church  could  be  organized  every  day  in  the  year, 
and  not  trespass  on  any  one's  work,"  The  desti- 
tution may  be  judged  by  this  fact  stated  by  Dr. 
Doyle :  "  In  one  western  State,  in  1901,  the  Presby- 
terian Church  entered  seven  regions  in  which  up 
to  that  time  no  church  of  any  kind  had  been  doing 
any  religious  work." 

The  success  of  home  missions  in  the  west  is  evi- 
dent from  the  fact  that  Secretary  Thompson  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church  acknowledges  that  nine- 
tenths  of  all  their  churches  are  of  home  missionary 
origin ;  and  the  Presbyterian  Church  for  that  rea- 
son is  especially  strong  in  the  "West. 

3.  New  Mexico  is  part  of  the  Territory,  ceded 
by  Mexico  to  the  United  States  in  the  Treaty  of 
1848,  and  an  area  larger  than  all  of  New  England 
and  New  York  combined.  It  shares  with  Florida 
the  honor  of  being  the  oldest  country  settled  in 
the  United  States,  dating  back  within  forty  years 
of  the  discovery  of  America  by  Columbus,  The 
oldest  house  in  the  United  States  is  said  to  be  lo- 
cated in  Santa  Fe,  the  capital  and  second  oldest 
City  in  America.     The  writer  a  few  years  ago  in 


The  Great  West  i8l 

studying  the  comparative  religious  statistics  of  the 
census  of  1890  was  amazed  to  find  that  JSTew  Mex- 
ico stood  at  the  very  head  of  the  list  of  states,  in 
having  the  largest  church  membership  in  propor- 
tion to  population.  The  explanation  lies  in  the 
fact  that  the  whole  country  is  nominally  Eoman 
Catholic.  It  is  really  a  foreign  land  in  the  United 
States  and  differs  very  little  from  Mexico  itself, 
containing  together  with  Texas  most  of  the  Mex- 
icans in  the  United  States.  It  is  the  home  like- 
wise of  the  Pueblo  Indians,  8,000  in  number,  a 
quiet,  peaceable  people,  whose  religion  is  a  mixture 
of  Catholicism  and  paganism.  It  possesses  a  pe- 
culiar order  of  religious  fanatics  called  Penitentes, 
probably  the  successors  of  the  old  Spanish  Flagel- 
lants, who  early  came  into  this  country,  with  as- 
cetic practices  and  superstitious  ceremonies.  On 
Good  Friday  it  is  said  they  carry  a  huge  cross  to 
a  distant  hill  and  represent  in  a  rude  way  the  cru- 
cifixion of  Christ ;  it  is  sometimes  even  charged 
that  they  have  crucified  one  of  their  number.  Few 
Americans  know  perhaps  that  the  Passion  Play  is 
thus  coarsely  represented  in  our  own  land.  They 
strip  themselves  to  the  waist  and  lash  themselves 
with  whips  until  the  blood  flows  freely,  and  some 
have  died  under  these  self-inflicted  scourges. 

It  is  a  beautiful  country  of  mountains  and  val- 
leys, caiions  and  parks ;  the  climate  is  dry  and 
salubrious  attracting  many  invalids  in  search  of 
health.  Its  precious  metals  are  valuable  and  its 
fruits  among  the  finest  in  the  world.  On  account 
of  the  scarcity  of  rainfall  the  crops  are  confined  to 


i82  At  Our  Own  Door 

the  valleys,  but  are  capable  of  supporting  any  num- 
ber of  cattle  and  sheep.  Here  the  Montezumas 
ruled  the  most  civilized  and  enlightened  of  all  the 
aborigines.  Here  the  Spaniards  and  Catholics 
have  ruled  for  300  years  without  making  any  ad- 
vance in  science,  industry,  education  or  religion. 
At  the  time  it  became  a  part  of  American  Terri- 
tory it  possessed  but  one  school  in  all  its  wide  do- 
mains. It  furnishes  a  fine  field  for  foreign  mis- 
sions at  home  among  its  122,000  population.  The 
Presbyterian  Church  has  established  a  number  of 
splendid  schools  that  are  leavening  and  elevating 
gradually  the  whole  Territory. 

Kev.  Joseph  B.  Clark  sums  up  the  result  of  re- 
ligious effort  in  the  following  language  : 

"  Presbyterian  missions  in  New  Mexico  reflect 
honor  upon  the  wisdom  and  diligence  of  their 
Board.  Their  work  includes  three  presbyteries 
in  the  Synod  of  New  Mexico,  sixty-two  organized 
congregations, — of  which  twenty-seven  are  Amer- 
ican, twenty-nine  Mexican, — with  a  total  member- 
ship of  3,500.  There  are  thirty-eight  ordained 
missionaries,  twenty-two  evangelists  and  helpers, 
sixty  commissioned  teachers  and  1,500  enrolled 
pupils.  These  congregations  have  raised  during  the 
past  year  $29,000  for  missions  and  church  expenses. 

"  Methodists  show  a  total  of  sixty  organizations, 
forty-two  churches,  and  2,500  communicants.  Bap- 
tists, Congregationalists  and  Episcopalians  are 
doing  a  smaller  work,  but  of  the  same  kind,  educa- 
tional and  religious  combined,  and  with  constant 
and  most  cheering  tokens  of  success." 


The  Great  West  183 

The  conditions  in  Arizona  do  not  differ  essen- 
tially from  those  found  in  New  Mexico ;  this  same 
mixed  population,  only  larger  relative  proportion 
of  American  settlers,  drawn  thither  by  the  richer 
mines  and  larger  possibilities  of  the  soil. 

The  Southern  Church  entered  the  field  a  few 
years  ago  and  met  with  immediate  success,  but 
from  lack  of  funds  to  prosecute  the  work  has  not 
pushed  it  aggressively.  Being  a  part  of  our  own 
Southland  there  is  a  tremendous  obligation  upon 
us  to  give  this  vast  section  the  gospel.  To  the 
searching  question  of  the  Master,  "  Where  is  the 
Mexican,  thy  brother  ?  "  will  we  repudiate  the  obli- 
gation by  saying,  "  Am  I  my  brother's  keeper  ?  " 

This  brief  review  but  touches  "  The  Great  West " 
at  one  or  two  points  as  specimens.  But  "  what  can 
the  man  do  that  cometh  after  the  king  ? "  It 
would  seem  almost  presumption  to  attempt  to  add 
to  the  forecast  of  Dr.  Strong  on  the  future  of  the 
West  : 

"  Beyond  a  peradventure,  the  West  shall  domi- 
nate the  East.  With  more  than  twice  the  room 
and  resources  of  the  East,  the  West  will  probably 
have  twice  the  population  and  wealth  of  the  East, 
together  with  the  superior  power  and  influence 
which,  under  popular  government,  accompany 
them.  The  West  will  elect  the  executive  and  con- 
trol education.  When  the  centre  of  population 
crosses  the  Mississippi,  the  West  will  have  a 
majority  in  the  Lower  House,  and  sooner  or  later 
the  partition  of  her  great  Territories,  and  probably 
some  of  the  States,  will  give  to  the  West  the  con- 


184  At  Our  Own  Door 

trol  of  the  Senate.  When  Texas  is  as  densely- 
peopled  as  New  England,  it  is  hardly  to  be  sup- 
posed that  her  millions  will  be  content  to  see  the 
62,000  square  miles  east  of  the  Hudson  send  twelve 
senators  to  the  seat  of  government,  when  her  terri- 
tory of  262,000  sends  only  two.  The  West  will 
direct  the  policy  of  the  government,  and  by  virtue 
of  her  preponderating  population  and  influence 
will  determine  our  national  character,  and,  there- 
fore, destiny. 

"  Since  prehistoric  times  populations  have  moved 
steadily  westward,  as  De  Tocqueville  said,  '  as  if 
driven  by  the  mighty  hand  of  God.'  And  follow- 
ing their  migrations  the  course  of  empire,  which 
Bishop  Berkeley  sang,  has  westward  taken  its  way. 
The  world's  sceptre  passed  from  Persia  to  Greece, 
from  Greece  to  Italy,  from  Italy  to  Great  Britain, 
and  from  Great  Britain  the  sceptre  is  to-day  de- 
parting. It  is  passing  on  to  '  Greater  Britain,'  to 
our  Mighty  West,  there  to  remain,  for  there  is  no 
further  west ;  beyond  is  the  Orient.  Like  the 
star  in  the  East,  which  guided  the  three  kings 
with  their  treasures  westward,  until  it  stood  still 
over  the  cradle  of  the  infant  Christ,  so  the  star  of 
empire,  rising  in  the  East  has  ever  beckoned  the 
wealth  and  power  of  the  nations  westward,  until 
to-day  it  stands  still  over  the  cradle  of  the  young 
Empire  of  the  West,  to  which  the  nations  are 
bringing  their  offerings. 

"  The  West  is  to-day  an  infant,  but  shall  be  a 
giant,  in  each  of  whose  limbs  shall  unite  the 
strength  of  many  nations." 


IX 

THE  PROBLEM  OF  MISSIONS— FOES 

Church  history  has  impressed  no  lesson  more 
forcibly  than  the  fact,  that  it  is  easier  to  evan- 
gelize a  nation  than  to  maintain  the  purity  of  the 
truth.  It  is  easier  to  conquer  a  country  for  Christ 
than  to  hold  it  for  Christ.  "Where  is  Jerusalem, 
the  Mother  Church  ?  Where  is  Antioch,  that  sent 
out  Paul  and  Barnabas,  the  first  distinctive  foreign 
missionaries  ?  Where  is  the  Church  of  Asia  Minor, 
that  had  its  Ephesus,  Smyrna,  Philadelphia,  etc.  ? 
Where  is  North  Africa,  with  her  great  churches  of 
Alexandria,  Hippo,  etc.,  that  contained  in  the 
early  days  of  Christianity  a  thousand  (Presbyte- 
rian) bishops  ?  In  all  the  region  around  the  Medi- 
terranean, where  Christianity  had  its  earliest  and 
grandest  triumphs,  in  all  Bible  Lands,  Mohammed- 
anism has  uprooted  Christianit}'',  and  from  hun- 
dreds of  minarets  and  towers  200,000,000  followers 
of  the  "  false  Prophet "  hear  the  call :  "  God  is 
God  and  there  is  no  God  but  God,  and  Mohammed 
is  His  prophet."  Geneva,  the  home  of  John  Cal- 
vin, is  now  the  home  of  Eationalism.  The  origi- 
nal Presbyterian  Church  of  England  is  now  Uni- 
tarian. Many  of  the  largest  sections  of  the  once 
Christian  church  are  now  apostate  and  anti- 
Christ. 

»8s 


l86  At  Our  Own  Door 

Will  history  repeat  itself  in  the  United  States  ? 
It  may  be  thought  that  in  our  "  Christian  country  " 
with  its  splendid  civilization,  material  development 
and  great  religious  organizations,  there  is  no 
danger  of  degeneration  ;  and  yet  the  danger  may 
lie  just  in  the  direction  of  our  splendid  civilization 
and  material  progress.  The  church  is  being  over- 
organized  and  cumbered  with  machinery  till  in 
danger  of  breaking  beneath  its  own  weight. 
Machinery  is  being  substituted  for  spirituality. 
Culture  is  more  in  evidence  than  piety.  The 
church  is  becoming  "rich  and  increased  with 
goods"  and  in  danger  of  becoming  satisfied. 
Commercialism  and  worldliness  are  sapping  in 
many  places  the  life  of  the  church.  As  long  as 
the  church  was  poor  and  persecuted  she  was  spirit- 
ual and  aggressive.  As  soon  as  Constantine  en- 
throned her  in  the  palace  of  the  Caesars,  she  lost 
her  spirituality  and  power  largely,  ceasing  to  bear 
witness  to  the  truth.  The  logical  result  was 
"  The  Dark  Ages  "  ;  the  remedy  was  "  The  Kefor- 
mation." 

It  may  be  that  America  is  the  world's  last  great 
problem.  It  may  be  that  here  the  forces  of  good 
and  evil  are  gathering  for  a  last  gigantic  struggle, 
the  spiritual  Arma-Geddon.  Are  we  not  already 
in  the  midst  of  perilous  times  ?  Is  not  the  adver- 
sary already  marshalling  his  forces  for  the  fray  ? 
Intemperance,  that  annually  fills  a  hundred  thou- 
sand graves  with  its  victims  and  consumes  a  billion 
dollars  of  the  country's  wealth,  is  a  huge  monster 
of  iniquity,  but  is  not  the  most  dangerous  foe  of 


The  Problem  of  Missions — Foes       187 

Cliristianity.  It  is  an  open,  avowed,  hideous  evil. 
The  more  subtle,  dangerous  foe  is  Satan  trans- 
formed into  "An  Angel  of  light,"  not  so  much 
anti-Chrisi  as  a  false  Christ,  offering  a  substitute 
for  the  Gospel  of  Christ,  preaching  "another 
Gospel  which  is  not  another."  The  struggle  for 
this  country  is  fierce  and  uncompromising,  between 
good  and  evil,  between  Satan  propagating  his 
"  gospel  of  dirt "  by  false  prophets,  and  Christianity 
propagating  its  faith  by  home  missions. 

Has  the  world  ever  witnessed  such  a  propaganda 
of  falsehood  as  the  Christian  Science  craze  ?  A 
woman  of  questionable  reputation,  divorced  from 
her  husband,  discovers  a  new  gospel  in  1866,  which 
she  promulgates  at  Boston.  Laughed  at  and  ridi- 
culed at  first  on  account  of  its  absurdities  and 
questionable  morality,  it  at  length  becomes  a  fad 
among  a  certain  type  of  society  women  for  the  lack 
of  better  employment  and  newer  sensational  ex- 
citement. Just  the  opposite  of  the  Gospel  of 
Christ  which  was  "preached  to  the  poor,"  this 
spurious  gospel  is  preached  almost  exclusively  to 
the  indolent  rich.  Propagated  chiefly  by  women 
preachers  and  so-called  "  healers,"  who  have  made 
merchandise  of  souls  and  grown  rich  by  practicing 
on  nervous,  hysterical  and  credulous  people,  ac- 
cepted at  first  largely  by  cranks  and  unbalanced 
minds,  it  has  obtained  a  foothold  in  almost  every 
section  of  the  country.  The  Christ  of  God  "  had 
not  where  to  lay  His  head,"  and  was  crucified  by 
the  world.  This  false  Christ  of  Boston  has  amassed 
millions  of  dollars  by  the  sale  of  her  book  (which 


i88  At  Our  Own  Door 

must  always  be  purchased  as  a  condition  of  being 
healed,  making  her  "  healers  "  without  exception 
her  book  agents) ;  and  she  herself  has  been  deified 
as  "  Our  Mother,"  as  much  an  object  of  idolatrous 
worship  by  her  dupes  as  is  "  Our  Lady "  by 
papists. 

As  a  system  of  philosophy  ("  science,  falsely  so 
called  " ),  it  is  heathen  Pantheism,  redressed  in 
semi-religious  garb,  and  baptized  under  a  new 
name.  It  is  a  false  gospel  that  denies  the  exist- 
ence of  sin,  which  in  theory  denies,  and  in  practice 
admits,  the  existence  of  pain,  which  merges  self  in 
God  and  converts  God  into  a  sentimental  "  Father- 
hood and  Motherhood,"  which  takes  away  from  us 
a  personal  Christ  and  gives  us  an  abstract  idea  in- 
stead. Its  rapid  spread  cannot  be  accounted  for 
upon  any  rational  principle,  for  it  is  contrary  to 
reason.  It  is  a  delusion  of  the  devil  that  spreads 
as  contagion.  It  manifests  that  zeal  which  is  so 
characteristic  of  falsehood. 

Its  literature  is  plaguing  the  country  like  the 
frogs  of  Egypt.  Our  railroad  depots  are  flooded  and 
public  libraries  are  infested  with  it.  In  one  of  our 
great  cities  "  The  Public  Library,"  founded  by 
philanthropists  and  public  spirited  citizens  now  in 
their  graves,  has  been  prostituted  by  its  present 
directors  in  the  service  of  this  slime  of  the  pit,  and 
over  the  door  of  this  Public  Building  the  writer 
saw  in  flaming  characters  "  Christian  Science 
Reading  Room,"  During  one  of  the  largest  State 
Fairs  in  the  South,  where  the  crowd  was  esti- 
mated at  40,000  people,  the  writer  saw  no  evangel- 


The  Problem  of  Missions — Foes       189 

ical  church  distributing  the  principles  of  its  faith, 
but  there  were  the  propagators  of  this  substitute 
for  the  gospel,  thrusting  their  literature  into  the 
faces  of  all  passers-by. 

Mark  Twain  may  laugh  it  out  of  court,  philos- 
ophers may  demonstrate  its  absurdity,  preachers 
of  the  gospel  may  show  that  it  is  utterly  subver- 
sive of  the  gospel  and  morality,  the  funerals  of  its 
"  patients  "  and  the  death  of  its  devotees  may  be 
in  evidence  in  every  community  ;  and  yet  it  goes 
on  unblushingly  denying  the  existence  of  suffering 
and  sin,  collecting  its  fees  from  fresh  victims,  and 
making  new  converts  by  a  species  of  hypnotism 
peculiarly  its  own.  The  Church  cannot  longer  af- 
ford to  ignore  it,  the  faintest  toleration  of  it  is  un- 
faithfulness to  the  Truth,  and  to  Christ.  The 
Church  must  meet  it  squarely  and  unhesitatingly, 
by  teaching  the  truth  which  neutralizes  it ;  and  by 
its  home  mission  operations  in  occupying  the 
ground,  effectually  shut  it  out  of  new  communi- 
ties and  circumscribe  the  sphere  of  its  operations. 

"  Out  of  the  mouth  of  the  false  prophet  " — the 
time  was  when  the  application  of  this  language 
pointed  to  Mohammed.  The  church  has  come  to 
recognize  the  fact  that  no  individual  can  embody 
within  himself  exclusively  the  character  and  office 
of  "  False  Prophet."  He  is  the  teacher  of  a  false 
gospel,  whether  Mohammed,  Swedenborg,  Madame 
Blavatsky,  Mary  Baker  Glover  Eddy,  or  Joseph 
Smith,  the  founder  of  the  "  Church  of  the  Latter 
Day  Saints,"  popularly  known  as  Mormonism. 

The  history  of  the  latter  is  unique.     Kev.  Solo- 


190  At  Our  Own  Door 

mon  Spaulding,  a  Presbyterian  minister,  adopted 
the  fanciful  theory  that  the  Indians  were  the  de- 
scendants of  the  Ten  Lost  Tribes  of  Israel,  and 
constructed  a  romance,  embodying  and  maintain- 
ing that  idea  entitled  "  The  Manuscript  Found." 
It  was  written  in  imitation  of  Scripture  language, 
containing  frequently  such  expressions  as  "  It 
came  to  pass."  Having  tried  in  vain  to  find  a  pub- 
lisher, this  manuscript  lay  several  years  in  the 
office  of  the  Presbyterian  Banner.  Sidney  Rig- 
don,  a  Baptist  minister,  employed  in  the  Banner 
office  and  afterwards  a  prominent  Mormon,  had 
this  manuscript  in  possession  for  a  time  and  made 
a  copy  of  it. 

In  some  way  it  came  into  the  possession  of  Jo- 
seph Smith,  an  obscure  and  illiterate  man,  native 
of  Vermont,  then  residing  near  Palmyra,  New 
York.  Pretending  to  have  been  divinely  guided 
by  celestial  visions  and  voices,  he  claimed  to  have 
found  certain  golden  plates,  which  were  written 
in  "  Egyptian,"  but  translated  by  himself  and 
given  to  the  world  as  the  "  Book  of  Mormon,"  the 
Bible  of  the  Latter  Day  Saints.  If  anything  can 
be  proved  by  evidence,  there  can  never  be  the 
shadow  of  a  doubt,  that  the  romance  written  by 
Spaulding  and  the  Book  of  Mormon  by  Joseph 
Smith  are  one  and  the  same.  It  was  so  asserted  at 
the  time  by  numbers  of  persons  in  that  community 
who  had  access  to  both.  It  was  testified  by  Mrs. 
McKinstry,  the  daughter  of  Spaulding.  The  evi- 
dence was  so  damaging  that  one  Hurlburt,  accord- 
ing to  the  sworn  statement  of  Mrs.  McKinstry, 


The  Problem  of  Missions — Foes       igi 

borrowed  the  original  manuscript  under  the  pre- 
tense of  comparing  it  with  the  Book  of  Mormon. 
The  manuscript  was  destroyed,  probably  in  the  in- 
terest of  Mormon  ism,  and  the  evidence  led  to  the 
conclusion  that  Hurlburt  was  himself  a  Mormon. 

"  The  Book  of  Mormon  has  been  supplemented 
by  *  The  Book  of  Doctrines  and  Covenants.'  This 
book  contains  the  revelations  to  Joseph  Smith  and 
Brigham  Young.  These,  with  the  Bible,  form  the 
Mormon  Scriptures.  They  consider  the  Old  Tes- 
tament as  being  specially  for  the  Jews,  the  New 
Testament  for  the  Judaic  and  European  Christian 
Church,  the  Book  of  Mormon  for  the  American 
Christian  Church,  and  the  Book  of  Doctrines  and 
Covenants  specially  for  themselves. 

"  The  history  of  the  development  and  spread  of 
Mormonism  has  been  most  remarkable.  The  Mor- 
mon religion,  if  it  may  be  so  called,  began  with  the 
experiences  and  achievements  of  Joseph  Smith. 
January  18,  1829,  he  married  Emma  Hale  against 
her  parents'  wishes.  The  Mormon  church  was  or- 
ganized April  6,  1830,  at  Fayette,  Seneca  County, 
New  York,  at  the  home  of  a  convert  named  Whit- 
mer.  Six  members  were  enrolled — the  prophet, 
two  of  his  brothers,  two  "Whitmers  and  Oliver 
Cowdery,  a  school-teacher.  Cowdery  had  become 
Smith's  amanuensis  in  1829.  On  May  15,  1829, 
by  the  command  of  an  angelic  messenger,  who 
called  himself  John  the  Baptist,  Smith  baptized 
Cowdery  and  Cowdery  baptized  him.  Afterwards 
they  ordained  each  other  to  the  Aaronic  Priest- 
hood.     Smith    later    received    the    Melchizedec 


192  At  Our  Own  Door 

Priesthood  from  the  apostles,  John,  James  and 
Peter.  In  December,  1830,  Sidney  Rigdon,  who 
had  secured  for  Smith  the  copy  of '  The  Manuscript 
Found,'  announced  himself  as  a  convert.  '  Rig- 
don was  erratic,  but  eloquent ;  self  opinionated,  but 
versed  in  the  Scriptures ;  and  in  literary  culture 
and  intellectual  force  was  the  greatest  man  among 
the  early  Mormons.'  From  this  point  on  the  sect 
grew  very  rapidly  "  (Dr.  Sherman  Doyle). 

Various  places  became  the  rendezvous  of  the 
saints.  From  Kirkland,  Ohio,  to  Jackson  County, 
Mo.,  they  passed.  Driven  from  community  to 
community  till  finally  they  founded  Nauvoo  on 
the  Mississippi.  Joseph  Smith  continued  to  receive 
"  revelations,"  and  when  at  Kauvoo  the  spiritual 
wife  doctrine  was  announced  it  caused  great  indig- 
nation. The  office  building  of  the  Expositor^ 
the  opposition  paper  to  Mormonism  was  burned. 
Redress  was  sought  in  court,  and  finally  Joseph 
Smith,  the  leader,  was  thrown  into  prison  at  Car- 
thage, Mo.,  where  a  mob  attacked  the  jail,  and 
Smith  was  murdered.  It  was  exceedingly  unfor- 
tunate ;  for  it  converted  a  fakir  into  a  martyr.  It 
aroused  the  saints  and  gave  them  a  stronger  and 
wiser  leader  in  Brigham  Young,  who  led  them 
overland  a  journey  of  1,100  miles  to  Utah,  where 
they  established  a  flourishing  colony  in  the  beauti- 
ful valley  of  the  Great  Salt  Lake.  They  organized 
the  State  of  "Deseret"  signifying  the  "Honey 
Bee,"  but  on  account  of  its  polygamous  practices  it 
was  refused  admission  to  the  Union.  The  United 
States  organized  it  into  a  Territory,  but  it  required 


The  Problem  of  Missions — Foes       193 

government  troups  to  maintain  the  authority  of 
the  National  Government.  The  State  of  Utah  has 
been  recently  admitted  to  the  Union,  upon  the 
adoption  of  a  constitution  forbidding  polygamy, 
but  it  is  still  encouraged  and  practiced.  With 
Mormon  juries,  courts  and  officials  it  is  almost  im- 
possible to  convict  a  polygamist. 

Ecclesiastically,  it  is  a  hierarchy  of  the  most 
despotic  order.  It  is  both  church  and  state,  whose 
ambition  is  to  control  the  National  Government, 
as  effectually  as  it  dominates  Utah.  Tithing  is  es- 
tablished by  law  and  binding  upon  every  member 
of  the  Mormon  Church.  This  brings  in  an  enor- 
mous income  of  $1,000,000  annually  for  the  sup- 
port of  the  machine  and  for  the  propagation  of 
their  faith  in  other  sections.  As  an  organization 
it  controls  its  members  as  completely  as  the  Jesuit 
Order  and  by  methods  as  disreputable.  Brigham 
Young  decided  that  a  lie  might  be  told  in  the  in- 
terest of  the  church.  Each  must  spend  several 
years  in  missionary  work  if  commanded.  They 
"  say  to  one  man  go,  and  he  goeth,  and  to  another 
man  come,  and  he  cometh."  Their  agents  are  all 
over  the  world,  making  proselytes,  shipping  them 
to  Utah,  who  must  refund  such  expenses  as  soon 
as  possible. 

The  writer  and  friends  met  one  in  Berne,  Switzer- 
land, in  1895.  After  a  most  gushing  welcome  to 
his  countrymen  from  America,  with  many  expres- 
sions of  pleasure  at  the  meeting,  the  following  con- 
versation took  place  almost  verbatim  : 

"  What  is  your  occupation  here  in  Switzerland  ?  " 


194  At  Our  Own  Door 

"  I  am  a  missionary." 
"  What  church  do  you  represent  ?  " 
"  The  church  of  the  Latter  Day  Saints." 
Our  telltale  countenances  expressive  of  disap- 
pointment and  disgust  caused  this  "  missionary  " 
immediately  to  add : 

"  And  I  am  very  proud  of  my  church." 
Whereupon,  Dr.  W.  T.  Thompson,  now  of  Wash- 
ington, D.  C,  ventured  to  inquire,  "  Are  you 
equally  proud  of  the  Mountain  Meadow  Massacre  ?  " 
To  which  he  promptly  replied  :  "  The  public  has 
never  understood  our  position  in  that  affair.  We 
heard  a  report  that  this  party  had  formed  an  alli- 
ance with  the  Indians  to  murder  our  people.  So 
we  killed  them  as  we  believed  in  self-defense."  As 
we  all  boarded  the  train  for  Geneva,  he  excused 
himself  from  our  company,  saying  he  always  trav- 
elled third-class,  and  remarked,  "  the  only  reason 
I  do  not  travel  fourth-class  is  because  there  is  no 
fourth-class." 

The  Presbyterians,  Baptists  and  Congregational- 
ists  have  issued  an  Indictment  of  "  Ten  Keasons 
Why  Christians  Cannot  Fellowship  with  the  Mor- 
mon Church,"  which  has  been  condensed  by  Dr.  J. 
B.  Clark  as  follows  : 

"1.     The    Mormon    Church    unchurches  all 
Christians. 

2.  The  Mormon  Church  places  the  Book  of 
Mormon  and  the  Book  of  Doctrines 
and  Covenants  on  a  par  with  the 
Bible,  equally  inspired  and  binding. 


The  Problem  of  Missions — Foes        195 

3.  The  Mormon  Church  makes  Joseph  Smith 

a  Prophet  of  God,  and  all  who  reject 
him,  heretics. 

4.  The  Mormon  Church  makes  faith  in  the 

Mormon  Priesthood  essential  to  salva- 
tion, and  denial  of  its  authority  a 
damnable  sin. 

5.  The  Mormon  Church  teaches  a  doctrine 

of  God  that  is  anti-scriptural,  dishonor- 
able to  the  divine  Being  and  debasing 
to  man. 

6.  The  Mormon  Church  teaches  that  Adam 

is  God,  and  that  Jesus  Christ  is  his  son 
by  natural  generation. 

7.  The  Mormon  Church  is  polytheistic.     It 

teaches  the  plurality  of  gods. 

8.  The  Mormon  Church  teaches  an  anti- 

biblical  doctrine  of  salvation. 

9.  The  Mormon  Church  believes  in  polyg- 

amy. The  doctrine  is  to  them  both 
sacred  and  fundamental. 

10.     The  Mormon  Church  teaches  that  God  is 
a  polygamist "  (Leavening  the  Nation). 

"  If  there  be  any  doubt  as  to  the  designs  of  the 
Mormons,  let  the  testimony  of  Bishop  Lunt  be 
conclusive  on  that  point.  He  said  in  1880 :  *  Like 
a  grain  of  mustard  seed  was  the  truth  planted  in 
Zion  ;  and  it  is  destined  to  spread  through  all  the 
world.  Our  church  has  been  organized  only  fifty 
years,  and  yet  behold  its  wealth  and  power.  This 
is  our  year  of  jubilee.  "We  look  forward  with  per- 
fect confidence  to  the  day  when  we  will  hold  the 


196  At  Our  Own  Door 

reins  of  United  States  Government.  That  is  our 
present  temporal  aim  ;  after  that,  we  expect  to  con- 
trol the  Continent.'  When  told  that  such  a  scheme 
seemed  rather  visionary,  in  view  of  the  fact  that 
Utah  cannot  gain  recognition  as  a  state,  the  Bishop 
replied :  '  Do  not  be  deceived ;  we  are  looking 
after  that.  We  do  not  care  for  these  territorial 
officials  sent  out  to  govern  us.  They  are  nobodies 
here.  We  do  not  recognize  them,  neither  do  we 
fear  any  practical  interference  by  Congress.  We 
intend  to  have  Utah  recognized  as  a  State.  To- 
day we  hold  the  balance  of  political  power  in 
Idaho,  we  rule  Utah  absolutely,  and  in  a  very  short 
time,  we  will  hold  the  balance  of  power  in  Ari- 
zona and  Wyoming  '  "  (Our  Country). 

Socially,  Mormonism  is  a  blot  upon  our  country 
and  a  disgrace  to  civilization ;  politically  it  is  a 
menace  to  any  government ;  religiously  it  is  a  delu- 
sion, but  propagated  with  the  characteristic  zeal 
of  the  fanatic  and  bigot. 

It  is  a  well-known  fact  that  they  have  recently 
acquired  vast  tracts  of  land  in  northern  Mexico 
and  are  now  undertaking  to  plant  colonies  on 
them. 

If  they  were  content  to  confine  their  operations 
to  the  West  that  would  be  peril  enough  for  our 
country,  but  they  are  invading  the  East,  and  oper- 
ating in  all  parts  of  the  world,  having  an  aggre- 
gate membership  at  present  of  three  hundred 
thousand.  Presbyterians  send  twenty-two  mission- 
aries to  Utah ;  whilst  the  Mormons  send  2,000  to 
every  nook  and  corner  of  our  country  ! 


The  Problem  of  Missions — Foes        197 

"  Mormonism  makes  practically  no  proselytes 
among  its  gentile  neighbors.  Its  progress  is  the 
result  of  its  persistent  missionary  work.  In  1901 
officers  of  the  Mormon  Church  claimed  that  from 
1,400  to  1,900  emissaries  of  the  church  of  the 
Latter  Day  Saints  were  in  the  field.  The  East  is 
permeated  with  their  influence.  They  enter  a 
Christian  Church  in  Harlem,  New  York,  and  their 
specious  arguments  capture  members  and  officers 
of  its  Christian  Endeavor  Society,  who  forthwith 
emigrate  to  Utah ;  they  call  from  house  to  house 
in  Pennsylvania,  and  even  the  descendants  of 
Scotch  Covenanters  are  not  proof  against  their 
wiles  ;  they  penetrate  the  coves  of  the  Blue  Ridge 
and  the  AUeghanies,  seeming  Angels  of  Light 
to  the  secluded  inhabitants.  They  take  service  in 
families,  the  better  to  carry  forward  their  work. 
A  Mormon  butler  actually  induced  sixty  servant 
girls  to  go  to  Utah  by  the  promise  of  husbands 
and  homes. 

"  The  English  manufacturing  towns  are  promising 
fields.  The  people  are  ignorant,  superstitious  and 
poor,  and  the  offer  of  a  building  lot,  or  a  farm,  is 
very  attractive.  In  the  six  years  beginning  with 
1840,  3,750  Mormon  immigrants  came  from  Great 
Britain  alone.  No  law  can  prevent  this  unless  the 
incomers  admit  that  they  are  polygamists — and 
that  contingency,  of  course,  is  carefully  guarded 
against.  In  fact,  the  doctrine  of  polygamy  is 
usually  kept  in  the  background,  if  not  denied, 
until  a  new  convert  reaches  Utah.  'When  we 
dare,'  said  an  apostle,  speaking  of  missionary  work 


198  At  Our  Own  Door 

in  Japan,  '  we  preach  the  doctrine  of  plural  mar- 
riage.'    .     .     . 

"  Three  hundred  American  mormons  are  reported 
as  attending  the  dedication  of  a  Mormon  Temple 
in  Copenhagen.  The  Book  of  Mormon  has  been 
translated  unto  fourteen  different  languages,  in- 
cluding German,  French,  Danish,  Italian,  Dutch, 
"Welsh,  Swedish,  Spanish,  Hawaiian,  Hindostanee, 
Maori,  Samoian  and  Tahitian"  (Under  Our  Flag). 

One  of  the  great  dailies  in  Atlanta  recently  an- 
nounced that  there  are  more  Mormon  elders  at 
work  in  Georgia  than  Presbyterian  ministers.  The 
writer  was  in  Baltimore  recently  and  read  a  call 
in  one  of  the  papers  for  a  meeting  of  ministers 
and  others  interested,  to  take  action  in  regard  to 
Mormons  preaching  in  that  city  ;  and  he  stood  on 
the  streets  of  Macon,  Ga.,  and  saw  the  Great  Mor- 
mon Convention,  as  it  adjourned,  and  watched 
them  as  they  scattered  two  by  two  in  all  directions 
to  propagate  their  infamous  doctrines.  Once  they 
glided  stealthily,  through  rural  districts,  and  fron- 
tier settlements,  but  now  they  preach  boldly  on  the 
streets  of  Atlanta  and  infest  our  great  cities  and 
the  very  strongholds  of  our  faith.  To  counteract 
and  thwart  them,  is  one  special  mission  of  home 
missions.  The  Presbyterians  and  Congregation- 
alists  are  gaining  a  foothold  in  Utah  by  means  of 
schools  and  missions;  but  it  is  too  late  to  send 
missionaries  after  the  proselytes  have  been  shipped 
to  Utah.  The  Church  must  meet  these  emissaries 
in  every  community.  Other  communities  must  be 
preempted  against  them  by  being  occupied  for 


The  Problem  of  Missions — Foes       199 

Christ  so  thoroughly  through  home  missions,  that 
these  emissaries  will  find  an  uncongenial  atmos- 
phere. 

"  Why  did  not  the  Mormons  effect  a  settlement 
in  Illinois  or  Missouri,  where  they  first  attempted 
to  found  a  home  for  their  pernicious  doctrine  and 
strange  practices  ?  Because  the  ground  was  oc- 
cupied by  a  better  class  of  citizens  who  abhorred 
the  vicious  tenents  of  the  Mormons  and  bitterly 
opposed  their  progress.  So  this  anomalous  sect 
sought  a  home  farther  west  where  the  foot  of  the 
white  man  had  hardly  trod.  There  they  created 
a  great  commonwealth  of  ignorant  and  fanatic 
people  under  the  absolute  control  of  unscruplous 
leaders,  whose  disregard  of  sound  morals  is 
equalled  only  by  their  contempt  for  civil  law" 
(Rev.  P.  H.  Gwinn). 

If  it  is  true  as  stated  by  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes 
that  the  training  of  a  child  should  begin  a  hun- 
dred years  before  it  is  born,  then  the  time  to  pre- 
pare our  communities  against  Mormonism  is  before 
they  make  their  appearance  on  the  scene.  No 
method  will  be  effectual  till  the  Church  in  its  home 
mission  operation  exceeds  the  zeal  of  the  false 
apostles  of  this  unscrupulous  sect.  If  men  are 
zealous  for  falsehood,  why  is  it  Christians  are  not 
more  zealous  for  the  truth  ? 

This  chapter  devoted  to  an  expose  of  the  enemy 
has  dealt  with  only  two  types,  as  specimens.  Time 
would  fail  to  tell  of  Theosophists,  who  under  the 
guise  of  "  Brotherhood  of  man  "  is  seeking  to  in- 
troduce into  our  country  the  old  effete   heathen 


200  At  Our  Own  Door 

Buddhism  of  the  East.  One  of  our  cities  in 
Georgia  contains  an  organization  of  Theosophists 
one  hundred  strong;  and  they  have  established 
under  the  leadership  of  Catherine  Tingley  an  in- 
stitution in  California  for  the  propagation  of  this 
form  of  heathenism  in  the  United  States.  Time 
would  fail  to  tell  of  Spiritualists,  Socialists,  An- 
archists, Dowieites  and  other  foes,  which  antago- 
nize the  church  and  threaten  godliness. 

It  is  time  the  church  were  girding  up  her  loins 
and  preparing  to  meet  the  enemy,  which  is  "  com- 
ing in  like  a  flood,"  if  she  is  not  only  to  capture 
this  country,  but  hold  it  for  Christ,  It  is  neces- 
sary to  contend  not  only  for  the  faith,  but  for  our 
fair  land,  our  home,  our  civilization  and  our  relig- 
ion. This  is  the  object  of  home  missions ;  to  meet 
the  enemy  at  every  point ;  to  give  the  Gospel  to 
every  community ;  to  plant  a  church  in  every  lo- 
cality ;  until  every  dark  valley  is  illumined,  and 
every  mountain-top  crimsoned  with  the  glory  of 
the  Gospel  of  Christ. 

It  must  be  home  missions  for  America  now  /  or 
it  may  be  that  foreign  missionaries  from  Japan  or 
New  Zealand  must  come  in  the  coming  centuries 
to  tell  the  story  of  the  Cross  in  our  apostate  land. 


WOMAN'S   WORK— FRIENDS 

Will  the  noble,  self-sacrificing  women  of  the 
Church  of  Christ  allow  the  Secretary  of  the  As- 
sembly's home  missions  to  speak  a  word  to  their 
hearts  for  the  cause  of  our  common  Lord  ?  Will 
you  consider  this  appeal  individually  for  your  sym- 
pathy, prayers  and  help  in  the  great  cause  of  home 
missions  ?  Will  you,  if  possible,  read  this  chapter 
at  any  of  the  meetings  of  your  Ladies'  Societies, 
and  let  them  consider  whether  they  cannot  divide 
their  gifts  for  the  cause  of  Christ,  so  as  to  include 
the  self-denying  men  who  toil  in  the  slums  of  our 
cities,  among  the  destitute  mountain  regions  and 
the  scattered  multitudes  of  the  West  ?  Is  there 
not  here  and  there  a  company  of  women  who 
could  undertake  the  support  of  a  home  missionary 
for  the  Indian  Territory,  Oklahoma  or  Texas  ? 

"  Now,  there  stood  by  the  Cross  of  Jesus  His 
mother,  and  His  mother's  sister,  Mary  the  wife  of 
Cleophas,  and  Mary  Magdalene  "—and  woman  has 
been  standing  by  His  Cause  ever  since ! 

1.  It  is  a  question  of  great  interest  to  us  who 
love  to  dwell  upon  and  study  each  circumstance  in 
the  life  of  Christ,  how  He  was  sustained  during 
His  public  ministry,  from  His  baptism  of  consecra- 
tion at  its  beginning  until  His  baptism  of  blood  at 

201 


202  At  Our  Own  Door 

its  close.  Who  supported  heaven's  Missionary, 
who  not  only  left  His  native  shore  but  descended 
from  a  throne,  laying  aside  His  royal  robes  and 
divine  glory,  to  publish  the  gospel  of  salvation  to 
the  heathen  of  earth,  at  the  expense  of  His  life  ? 
"Whence  came  the  means  that  ministered  to  His 
wants  whilst  He  "  went  about  doing  good,"  "  heal- 
ing the  sick,"  "  raising  the  dead,"  "  preaching  the 
gospel  of  the  Kingdom,"  in  the  synagogues  or  pri- 
vate houses,  along  the  public  highways  of  Pales- 
tine and  in  populous  cities,  or  in  lonely  deserts  and 
on  mountain  heights,  exhibiting  an  unselfish,  un- 
worldly self-sacrificing  and  consecrated  life,  which 
is  the  type  and  model  of  all  missionary  effort  ? 

He  could  not  have  been  sustained  by  His  family, 
for  the  offering  of  His  mother  at  her  purification 
(Lev.  12 :  8  and  Luke  2 :  24),  and  the  occupation 
of  His  father,  Joseph,  the  carpenter  (Matt.  13  :  55), 
indicated  that  the  family  at  Nazareth  were  not 
strangers  to  poverty.  It  could  not  have  been  fur- 
nished by  other  members  of  His  family  or  kindred, 
"  For  neither  did  His  brethren  believe  in  Him " 
(John  Y :  5).  He  had  no  means  of  His  own,  for 
"  though  He  was  rich,  yet  for  your  sakes  He  became 
poor "  (Mark  6 :  3  and  2  Corinthians  8 :  9).  It 
was  necessary,  by  a  miracle  of  knowledge,  that  He 
should  apply  to  the  fish  of  the  sea  to  obtain  the 
money  for  paying  the  tribute  required  of  each  Jew 
for  the  Temple  service  (Matt.  17 :  24-27). 

Alluding  to  His  own  poverty,  how  touchingly 
He  exclaims :  "  The  foxes  have  holes,  and  the  birds 
of  the  air  have  nests ;  but  the  Son  of  man  hath  not 


Woman's  Work — Friends  203 

where  to  lay  His  head  "  (Matt.  8 :  20,  and  Luke 
9 :  58).  The  disciples  could  not  have  ministered 
unto  His  maintenance,  for  although  they  possessed 
a  treasurer,  who  "  had  the  bag  and  bare  what  was 
put  therein,"  yet  they  were  but  poor  fishermen, 
and  as  they  shared  His  manner  of  life  and  lot,  must 
themselves  have  been  sustained  in  the  same  way. 

He  worked  no  miracles  to  satisfy  His  wants; 
the  suggestion  of  Satan :  "  Command  that  these 
stones  be  made  bread,"  He  positively  refused.  By 
miracles,  on  more  than  one  occasion,  He  supplied 
many  thousands  with  bread,  but  never  worked  a 
miracle  in  His  own  behalf.  The  only  light  which 
can  be  thrown  upon  this  inquiry,  is  that  which 
gleams  in  a  few  seemingly  casual  references  by  the 
evangelists  in  their  Gospels.  In  Luke  8 :  2,  3  there 
occurs  the  remarkable  statement  that  there  were 
certain  women  which  had  been  healed  of  evil  spir- 
its and  infirmities :  Mary  called  Magdalene,  out  of 
whom  went  seven  devils,  and  Johanna,  the  wife  of 
Chusa,  Herod's  steward,  Susanna,  and  many  others 
which  "  ministered  unto  Him  of  their  substance^ 
Some  of  the  best  and  most  ancient  manuscripts  in 
the  latter  clause  read  "  them  "  instead  of  "  him," 
thus  including  the  disciples  as  objects  of  their  min- 
istrations as  well  as  Jesus. 

Matthew,  in  describing  the  various  circumstances 
and  characters  which  surround  the  Cross  of  Christ 
at  His  death,  mentions  (Matt.  2Y :  55)  that  "  many 
women  were  there,  beholding  afar  off,  which  fol- 
lowed Jesus  from  Galilee,  ininistering  unto  Him^ 
among  which  was  Mary  Magdalene,  etc."    Mark, 


204  ^^  ^"^  ^^^  Door 

alluding  to  these  women,  who  beheld  Him  cruci- 
fied, explains  that  they  were  the  same  "  who  also, 
when  He  was  in  Galilee,  followed  Him  and  minis- 
tered unto  Him  "  (Mark  15  :  40,  41).  The  word  in 
the  Greek,  translated  "  ministered,"  is  the  one  from 
which  is  derived  our  English  word  "Deacon." 
From  the  infallible  testimony  of  the  sacred  scrip- 
tures, it  is  evident  that  Jesus,  the  great  Itinerant, 
was  sustained  in  His  work  by  the  liberality  of  a 
few  noble,  self-sacrificing,  devoted  women ! 

It  is  never  said  that  any  man  ministered  unto 
Him  of  his  substance.  It  is  true  that  the  Magi 
brought  gifts  unto  His  manger ;  that  Nicodemus 
brought  a  "  mixture  of  myrrh  and  aloes  "  to  the 
cross,  and  that  Joseph  of  Arimathea  furnished 
Him  a  sepulchre ;  but  these  were  at  the  beginning 
and  the  close  of  His  earthly  life,  and  were  not  to 
sustain  Him  in  His  work.  On  one  occasion  it  is 
recorded  that  having  refused  to  convert  stones 
into  bread  for  his  use,  "  Behold,  angels  came  and 
ministered  unto  Him."  Angels  and  women  were 
His  ministering  spirits!  Angels  and  women  are 
placed  in  the  same  category,  by  the  similarity  of 
their  work!  Oh!  woman,  what  honor  has  been 
attained  by  you!  To  be  classed  with  angels! 
Who  have  ministered  unto  the  Son  of  God ! 
"  Wheresoever  this  Gospel  shall  be  preached 
throughout  the  whole  world,  this,  also,  that  she 
hath  done  shall  be  spoken  of  for  a  memorial  of 
her." 

2.  By  whom  supported,  and  from  whence  comes 
the  means  that  send  out  missionaries  of  the  Cross, 


Woman's  Work — Friends  205 

both  home  and  foreign,  in  this  age  of  the  Church, 
who  have  caught  the  spirit  of  their  Master,  to 
imitate  Him  in  preaching  the  Gospel  to  the 
heathen  of  every  land  ?  Through  whose  liberality 
comes  it  to  pass,  that  every  sea  bears  upon  its 
bosom  the  "ambassador  for  Christ" ;  that  the  sun 
shines  upon  no  land  where  the  Gospel  is  not  now 
being  preached  ?  Who  sustains  the  home  mission- 
ary on  the  far  western  plains  of  Texas,  and  amid 
the  hardships  of  the  Indian  Territory  ?  The  hand 
and  heart  of  woman  are  conspicuous  in  this  matter. 
She  who  sustained  the  first  missionary  out  of  her 
substance  bears  no  inferior  part  in  the  work  of  the 
Church,  which  characterizes,  and  is  the  glory  of 
the  twentieth  century.  The  magnitude  of  her 
labor  cannot  be  estimated,  but  only  indicated,  by 
the  following  brief  review  of  the  operation  of  the 
Ladies'  Missionary  Societies  during  the  past  hun- 
dred years : 

The  dawn  of  the  nineteenth  century  marked  the 
beginning  of  the  organized  work  of  Ladies' 
Societies  and  Missionary  effort.  In  1800  fourteen 
women,  part  of  them  Congregationalists  and  part 
Baptists,  organized  the  "Boston  Female  Society 
for  Missionary  Purposes,"  and  raised  $150  the 
first  year.  Immediately  "Female  Mite  and  Cent 
Societies "  sprang  up  all  over  the  state.  In  ten 
years  auxiliaries  had  so  multiplied  that  the  an- 
nual income  amounted  to  $1,360.  In  100  years 
the  society  has  raised  about  $175,000. 

In  the  Presbyterian  Church,  Ladies'  Societies 
began  to  appear  about  1860,  which  so  multiplied 


2o6  At  Our  Own  Door 

that  a  general  conference  was  held  at  Chicago  in 
1870;  but  it  was  not  until  1878  that  the  Synodical 
Committees  met  in  the  Bible  House  and  organized 
the  "  Woman's  Executive  Committee  of  Home 
Missions,"  which  has  raised  in  the  aggregate  three 
and  a  half  million  dollars. 

Previous  to  1850  nearly  fifty  Ladies'  Societies 
had  been  organized  among  the  Baptists,  raising 
each  year  about  $12,000.  In  1879  at  Chicago  all 
these  were  consolidated  under  the  direction  of  a 
general  society,  which  has  raised  in  all  $1,500,000. 

It  was  not  until  1880  that  the  Congregational 
Societies  came  together  to  form  the  "Woman's 
Home  Missionary  Association,"  but  it  is  estimated 
that  the  missionary  boxes  furnished  to  needy  min- 
isters by  them  would  amount  to  two  and  a  half 
million  dollars  in  value,  and  their  gifts  to  church 
erection,  etc.,  were  at  least  a  half  million  dollars ; 
whilst  in  their  organized  capacity  these  women 
have  contributed  one  and  a  half  million  dollars  to 
home  missions.  In  the  last  twenty  years  the 
ladies  of  the  Keformed  Church  have  given  $275,- 
360.  The  Woman's  Auxiliary  of  the  Episcopal 
Church  began  in  1871  and  has  contributed  the 
enormous  sum  of  five  millions  of  dollars  for 
missions. 

In  the  Southern  Church,  there  are  Ladies'  Mis- 
sionary Societies  in  almost  every  prominent  church 
and  in  many  of  the  weaker,  but  there  is  no  general 
organization  except  "  Presbyterial  Unions,"  con- 
fined to  individual  presbyteries.  These  contribute 
annually  nearly  $50,000  to  foreign  missions,  and 


Woman's  Work — Friends  207 

$2,000  to  the  Assembly's  home  missions,  besides 
their  gifts  to  local  home  missions.  The  aggregate 
of  their  gifts  can  only  be  estimated,  but  would 
probably  amount  to  a  million  dollars. 

Adding  these  gifts  of  Ladies'  Societies  together, 
we  have  the  vast  sum  of  fifteen  millions  of  dollars. 
Millions  of  other  uncounted  dollars  contributed  by 
women  for  missions  are  known  only  to  Him  "  who 
seeth  in  secret  and  will  reward  openly." 

Compare  the  membership  of  the  Southern  Pres- 
byterian Church  and  the  membership  of  the 
"Ladies'  Missionary  Associations  "  in  its  bounds, 
and  then  compare  the  respective  contributions  of 
each  by  the  year,  and  some  idea  will  be  furnished 
in  regard  to  the  question,  who  supports  the  mis- 
sionaries, at  home  and  abroad.  Add  to  this  the 
other  fact,  that  more  than  half  of  the  membership 
of  the  Church,  whose  contributions  are  compared 
with  these  "  Ladies'  Missionary  Associations  "  are 
themselves  women,  who  contribute  a  large  share 
of  that  credited  to  the  Church  ;  and  their  work 
will  be  even  more  manifest.  Disband  these  asso- 
ciations of  devoted  women,  and  paralyze  the  indi- 
vidual efforts,  and  estop  the  gifts  of  others,  much 
of  which  is  earned  by  their  own  personal  labor, 
and  what  disastrous  results  would  overtake  the 
cause  of  missions !  Many  laborers  would  be  re- 
called ;  many  stations  abandoned,  many  souls  left 
to  perish,  if  not  the  whole  work,  humanly  speak- 
ing, involved  in  hopeless  confusion  and  utter 
ruin. 

What  a  commentary  on  the  love  of  woman! 


2o8  At  Our  Own  Door 

What  a  specimen  of  her  self-sacrificing  spirit ! 
What  a  proof  of  her  devotion  to  Christ ! 

3.  Women  have  ever  been  true  to  Christ.  It 
was  no  woman  who  denied  Him.  Woman  never 
betrayed  Him  into  the  hands  of  His  enemies. 
Though  endowed  by  nature  with  a  shrinking, 
modest,  timid  disposition,  yet  they  stood  by  His 
cross  when  the  disciples  forsook  Him  and  fled,  who 
had  boasted  that  they  would  die  with  Him.  It  is 
not  mere  sentiment  that  woman  was  "  last  at  the 
cross  and  first  at  the  sepulchre."  The  fact  that 
the  evangelist  explained  that  these  women  at  the 
cross  were  the  same  who  ministered  unto  Him, 
confirms  a  great  principle,  that  the  parties  who 
contribute  to  an  object  or  cause  are  the  parties 
to  whom  it  is  dear,  and  who  will  cling  to  it  with 
ever-increasing  devotion.  That  object  which  costs 
us  thought,  labor  or  money,  is  the  object  around 
which  our  affections  will  entwine  their  strongest 
tendrils. 

Woman  had  ministered  unto  Him  of  her  sub- 
stance, therefore  she  stood  by  His  cross,  followed 
the  body  to  the  sepulchre  (Luke  23  :  55),  her  loving 
hands  assisting  in  this  sad  duty,  prepared  the 
articles  for  embalming  (Luke  23 :  56),  was  seen 
"sitting  over  against  the  sepulchre"  (Matt.  27: 
61),  first  discovered  His  resurrection  (Matt.  28: 
1-10 ;  Mark  16 :  1-8,  etc.),  and  was  consequently 
the  first  to  whom  He  appeared  (Mark  16  :  9). 
Only  one  of  the  twelve  was  at  the  crucifixion,  not 
one  at  the  burial,  nor  is  there  any  evidence  on 
record,  or  any  probability  even,  that  any  one  of 


Woman's  Work — Friends  209 

them  ever  visited  the  sepulchre  till  after  the  an- 
nouncement of  His  resurrection.  She  who  was  so 
true  to  Christ,  is  it  any  wonder  that  she  should  be 
true  to  His  cause?  The  more  she  labors  for 
Christ,  or  contributes  to  His  cause,  the  more  her 
affections  are  stimulated  ;  and  the  more  they  are 
stimulated,  the  greater  are  her  labors  of  love. 
By  the  law  of  action  and  reaction,  her  labor  and 
her  love  continually  augment  each  other ;  her 
labor  giving  strength  to  her  love,  and  her  love 
giving  fervor  to  her  labor. 

4.  Owing  to  causes  like  these,  the  highest  com- 
mendation or  eulogies  ever  uttered  by  Christ  to 
the  honor  of  any  human  being,  were  spoken  by 
Him  in  behalf  of  woman.  It  was  a  woman,  who, 
out  of  the  depth  of  her  love,  anointed  Him  with 
the  precious  ointment  so  costly  (Mark  14 :  3,  4)  as 
to  move  the  indignation  of  a  man,  who  only  a 
few  days  afterwards  sold  Him  to  His  bitterest 
enemies,  betraying  Him  with  a  kiss  for  a  sum  of 
money  less  than  one-third  the  cost  of  the  oint- 
ment (Matt.  26 :  14-16).  Of  this  woman  on  a 
former  occasion  He  had  said,  "  But  one  thing  is 
needful ;  and  Mary  hath  chosen  that  good  part, 
that  shall  not  be  taken  away  from  her."  Now, 
for  this  loving  act  of  anointing,  she  is  to  receive 
still  greater  honor  from  Christ.  From  His  lips 
she  receives  the  noblest  tribute  that  could  be 
bestowed  on  any  human  being,  "  She  hath  done 
what  she  could  "  (Mark  14  :  8).  Such  a  testimonial 
may  never  have  been  deserved  by  any  man. 
There  is,  at  least,  no  record  that  Christ  ever  said 


210  At  Our  Own  Door 

of  any  man,  He  hath  done  what  he  could.  She 
erected  for  herself  a  monument  more  beautiful 
than  marble,  more  lasting  than  adamant  or  brass, 
more  valuable  than  ruby  or  diamond.  "  Where- 
soever this  Gospel  shall  be  preached  throughout 
the  whole  world,  this  also  that  she  hath  done  shall 
be  spoken  of  for  a  memorial  of  her." 

His  commendation  of  the  "  poor  widow  "  is  His 
testimony  to  the  liberality  of  woman.  "  Jesus  sat 
over  against  the  treasury,  and  beheld  how  the  peo- 
ple cast  money  into  the  treasury."  He  is  not  in- 
different to  the  gifts  of  His  people,  but  beholds 
and  considers  the  proofs  of  their  love  and  devo- 
tion. "  And  many  that  were  rich  cast  in  much. 
And  there  came  a  certain  poor  widow,  and  she 
threw  in  two  mites,  which  make  a  farthing." 
This  was  the  smallest  offering  allowed  to  be  made. 
"  And  Jesus  called  His  disciples  unto  Him."  He 
calls  their  attention  specially  to  her  act :  "  and 
saith  unto  them,  Yerily  I  say  unto  you,  that  this 
poor  widow  hath  cast  more  in,  than  all  they  which 
have  cast  into  the  treasury,"  etc.  He  weighs  the 
gifts  of  His  people,  and  makes  ability  the  standard 
of  estimating  their  value,  and  gives  them  credit 
accordingly  (Mark  12  :  41-44).  Woman  hath  this 
additional  honor  that  she  made  the  most  valuable 
contribution  in  the  estimation  of  Christ  ever  made 
to  His  treasury.  It  was  not  a  man  that  had  this 
honor  or  praise  of  Christ. 

"The  coats  and  garments,  which  Dorcas  had 
made  while  she  was  with  them,"  were  shown  after 
her  death  as  evidence,  that  she  was  a  "  woman  full 


Woman's  Work — Friends  211 

of  good  works  and  alms  deeds  which  she  did" 
(Acts  9  :  36-43). 

In  concluding  his  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  it  is 
remarkable  how  large  a  proportion  of  the  saluta- 
tions given  and  commendations  uttered  were  of 
women.  Of  Phoebe,  Priscilla,  Persis,  Tryphena, 
Trypbosa,  Julia,  Junia,  and  Mary,  it  was  variously 
said  by  him  in  approbation  :  "  For  she  hath  been 
a  succorer  of  many  and  of  myself  also ; "  "  who 
bestowed  much  labor  on  us ; "  "  which  labored 
much  in  the  Lord,"  etc.  (Rom.  16). 

These  references  indicate  how  important  was 
the  work  of  women  in  the  primitive  Church.  All 
these  numerous  and  varied  commendations  of  dif- 
ferent women,  and  which  were  not  bestowed  on 
men,  are  not  simply  accidental,  but  proofs  of  their 
greater  devotion  and  superior  merit,  and  are  but 
specimens  of  Paul's  exhortation,  "Render  there- 
fore to  all  their  dues  ;  tribute  to  whom  tribute  is 
due;  honor  to  whom  honor."  What  a  work  is 
being  done  in  the  Church  of  the  present  day  for 
Christ  by  the  Dorcases,  the  "  poor  widows,"  the 
Lady  Huntingtons,  and  many  others,  whose  worth 
is  known  only  to  Christ,  and  whose  praises  are 
spoken  only  by  Him !  How  many  church  debts 
have  been  paid,  how  many  ministers  of  the  Gospel 
have  been  sustained,  how  many  church  edifices 
and  chapels  have  been  erected  by  them!  For- 
tunate is  the  church  that  hath  a  Dorcas,  or  a  pious 
"  poor  widow  "  !  These  are  more  valuable  than 
the  rich  or  noble.  As  they  stood  by  His  cross,  so 
they  will  not  desert  His  cause  at  the  approach  of 


212  At  Our  Own  Door 

disaster,  but  will  rally  closer  around  it,  water  it 
with  their  tears,  uphold  it  by  their  prayers,  labor 
for  it  with  their  hands  and  sustain  it  by  their  gifts, 
till  the  calamity  be  overpast.  "  Then  Jesus  an- 
swered and  said  unto  her,  O  woman,  great  is  thy 
faith  ;  be  it  unto  thee  even  as  thou  wilt." 

5.  It  is  a  slander  perpetrated  on  woman,  which 
charges  her  with  being  liberal  at  the  expense  of 
her  husband.  It  is  a  charge  which  is  quite  easily 
refuted.  That  one,  of  whom  Jesus  said,  "She 
hath  done  what  she  could,"  was  an  unmarried 
woman.  She,  whom  Christ  announced  to  His 
disciples  as  having  made  the  most  liberal  contri- 
bution of  all  that  cast  into  the  treasury,  was  "  a 
poor  widow!''*  Of  those  that  "ministered  unto 
Him  of  their  substance,"  concerning  whom  any- 
thing definite  is  known,  most  were  either  widows 
or  unmarried.  Not  many  years  ago,  a  young 
lady  of  culture  and  wealth,  to  whom  the  world 
presented  as  many  attractions  as  to  any,  to  whom 
home  and  friends  were  as  dear  as  to  others,  offered 
herself  to  the  Church  as  a  missionary  to  a  foreign 
shore.  Nor  was  this  all,  for  many  other  devoted 
women  have  done  the  same ;  hut  she  went  at  her 
own  expense. 

In  the  majority  of  churches  the  most  liberal  con- 
tributors, those  whose  gifts  are  greatest  in  propor- 
tion to  their  ability,  are  the  "  poor  widows,"  and 
those  whose  offerings  are  the  result  of  their  own 
exertions.  Many  pastors  and  deacons  would, 
doubtless,  confirm  that  statement  from  their  own 
personal  observation,  and  would  be  ready  to  prove 


Woman's  Work — Friends  213 

it  with  the  facts  and  figures.  It  may  be,  therefore, 
that  in  the  aggregate  "  the  widows'  mites "  will 
amount  to  a  far  greater  sum  than  the  gifts  of  the 
rich,  not  only  in  the  estimation  of  Christ,  but  also 
in  actual  figures.  If  the  whole  church  were  but 
endowed  with  the  faith  and  love,  and  consequently 
the  liberality  and  devotion,  of  many  "a  poor 
widow,"  it  would  be  comparatively  easy  to  con- 
quer the  world  for  Christ ! 

6.  What  is  it  a  Christian  woman  cannot  do  ? 
She  may  have  been  a  heathen  ;  but  let  her  heart 
be  won  for  Christ,  and  henceforth  her  efforts  in 
His  behalf  are  untiring.  It  was  reported  in  the 
missionary  periodicals  that  not  long  ago  a  mission- 
ary in  India  was  awakened  out  of  sleep  by  a  noise 
at  the  door.  Upon  inquiry  he  found  there  a 
woman,  who  had  been  converted  from  heathenism 
and  was  now  connected  with  his  church,  who  said 
to  him,  "  O  sir,  I  cannot  sleep  for  thinking  of  these 
perishing  people  ;  and  I  have  come  to  ask  you  to 
pray  with  me  for  their  conversion."  They  knelt 
there  and  mingled  their  entreaties  for  the  heathen 
around  them.  In  a  short  space  of  time  they  wit- 
nessed the  conversion  of  that  people  by  the  thou- 
sand, and  the  Telugus  are  to-day  a  Christian 
nation. 

No  sacrifice  is  too  great,  no  cross  too  heavy  for 
her  to  bear,  if  she  but  recognize  in  it  the  will  of 
her  Master.  The  wife  of  a  missionary  stood  upon 
the  seashore  in  India  watching  the  diminishing 
form  of  a  receding  vessel.  On  board  were  her 
children,  being  taken  home  to  be  educated.    Know- 


214  At  Our  Own  Door 

ing  they  would  be  months  upon  the  water,  and 
many  years  must  elapse  before  she  could  see  them 
again,  perhaps  never,  with  her  heart  full  of  emo- 
tion she  exclaimed,  "  This  I  do,  O  Christ,  for  Thy 
sake ! " 

It  may  be  that  God  has  not  endowed  woman 
with  the  wisdom  of  man,  nor  has  He  created  her 
with  the  strength  of  man,  and  she  is,  therefore, 
designated  "  the  weaker  vessel."  But  He  has  given 
her  that  which  is  better.  He  has  enriched  her  with 
more  heart  and  irresistible  influence.  Her  heart 
is  a  match  for  his  wisdom,  and  her  influence  can 
cope  with  his  strength.  Although  called  "  the 
weaker  vessel,"  yet  doubtless  she  far  outstrips  him 
in  the  race.  Her  opportunity  is  inferior  to  His. 
She  is  not  permitted  by  the  Master  to  advocate  His 
cause  from  the  pulpit.  Her  sphere,  compared  with 
that  of  the  other  sex,  is  limited.  But  when  the 
history  of  redemption  is  written,  and  the  "  books 
are  opened,"  and  the  rewards  of  faithfulness  and 
activity  are  meted  out  "  according  to  their  works," 
then,  perhaps,  it  will  be  revealed  that  if  her  oppor- 
tunities were  not  so  great,  yet  she  accomplished 
more  and  performed  a  more  important  part  in  the 
evangelization  of  the  world  than  man. 

7.  Woman  ought  to  be  devoted  to  Christ.  Al- 
though the  human  race  is  under  an  obligation  to 
Christ  which  no  service,  no  tears,  no  zeal,  no  hom- 
age, no  love  can  ever  cancel,  though  all  were  com- 
bined and  prolonged  during  the  ages  of  eternity, 
yet  woman  is  under  peculiar  obligation  to  Christ 
and  the  elevating  influence  of  His  religion.     If  it 


Woman's  Work — Friends  215 

were  permitted  to  give  utterance  to  the  expression, 
that  all  human  beings,  both  men  and  women,  are 
infinitely  indebted  to  Christ,  and  that  the  latter  class 
are,  if  possible,  even  more  indebted  to  Him,  it 
would  be  but  saying  that  His  religion  has  brought 
the  same  spiritual  blessing  to  woman  as  to  man, 
and  has  added  even  another,  in  elevating  her  from 
the  most  abject  slavery  to  man  to  a  position  of  in- 
fluence and  a  degree  of  refinement  in  some  respects 
at  least  even  superior  to  his. 

Christ  was  and  ever  has  been  her  truest  and  best 
friend.  His  religion  civilized  man  ;  it  emancipated 
and  ennobled  woman.  The  difference  between  the 
position  of  woman,  the  slave  of  man  in  every 
heathen  land,  and  her  position  of  honor  in  every 
Christian  country,  is  a  difference  caused  by  noth- 
ing else  except  the  religion  of  Christ.  Neither 
civilization,  education,  refinement,  nor  any  other 
system  of  religion,  ever  accomplished  such  a  mar- 
vellous result.  The  learning  or  philosophy  of  a 
Socrates  did  not  impel  him  to  undertake  the  task 
of  ameliorating  her  bondage.  Neither  the  moral 
culture  of  a  Seneca  nor  the  statesmanship  of  a 
Cicero  was  of  any  material  benefit  in  alleviating 
her  bitter  life.  The  religion  of  the  most  righteous 
Pharisee  did  not  secure  his  friendship  in  her  be- 
half, or  induce  him  to  become  the  champion  of  her 
rights ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  caused  him  to  take 
the  least  public  street  leading  to  the  synagogue, 
and  to  gather  up  the  folds  of  his  flowing  robe,  lest 
he  become  contaminated  by  accidentally  touching 
a  woman.     The  very  disciples  of  Christ  were  im- 


2i6  At  Our  Own  Door 

bued  with  the  same  spirit,  and  marvelled,  not  so 
much  that  "  He  talked  with  the  woman "  of  Sa- 
maria, as  that  "  He  talked  with  a  woman  !  "  (John 
4 :  27,  correct  translation.)  According  to  the  teach- 
ing they  had  received,  He  was  violating  one  of  the 
tenets  of  the  rabbis. 

His  conversation  with  woman  was  not  the  only 
method  by  which  His  friendship  was  exhibited  to- 
wards her.  He  did  not  scorn  her  touch  like  the 
self-righteous  Pharisee,  but  addressed  words  of 
comfort  to  her  who  touched  Him  secretly  with  fear 
and  trembling,  "  Daughter  be  of  good  comfort " 
(Luke  8 :  48) ;  and  to  the  woman  that  was  a  sinner, 
bathing  His  feet  with  penitential  tears,  whose 
touch  moved  the  scorn  and  indignation  of  the 
Pharisee,  He  said  kindly,  "  Go  in  Peace  "  (Luke 
T :  50).  It  was  this  spirit  of  Christ  once  manifested 
in  His  person,  ever  afterwards  manifested  in  His 
religion,  that  emancipated  woman  from  the  most 
galling  and  degraded  bondage  of  man.  It  is  His 
religion  and  that  alone  that  caused  the  difference 
in  the  condition  of  woman  among  heathen  and 
Christian  nations. 

It  is  not  strange,  therefore,  that  she  should  be 
the  friend  of  Jesus,  His  religion.  His  Church  and 
His  cause  of  missions.  The  appeal  in  behalf  of 
evangelization  may  be  made  to  woman  with  a 
double  argument  and  more  intense  emphasis. 
One  appeal  may  be  based  upon  the  wretched  state 
of  her  sisters  wherever  the  Gospel's  blessed  sound 
has  never  been  heard.  She  cannot  resist  the  ap- 
peal of  such  a  peculiar  nature,  that  which  calls 


Woman's  Work — Friends  217 

upon  her  to  redeem  her  sisters  from  a  twofold 
bondage  of  tenfold  bitterness,  from  bondage  of 
slavery  and  bondage  of  sin,  from  bondage  to  man 
and  from  still  more  degrading  and  galling  bondage 
to  Satan,  to  relieve  her  body  from  the  yoke  of 
man  and  release  her  soul  from  the  yoke  of  Satan. 
Such  an  argument  could  not  fail  to  exert  a  most  po- 
tent influence  in  arousing  many  a  "  Ladies'  Mission- 
ary Association  "  to  even  more  fervent  zeal  and  in- 
creased activity,  in  securing  many  "a  widow's 
mite  "  with  Christ's  blessing  upon  it  and  its  giver, 
and  in  stimulating  many  a  one  to  win  Christ's  ap- 
probation, "  She  hath  done  what  she  could,"  "  Well 
done,  good  and  faithful  servant." 

But  the  second  is  a  still  more  powerful  appeal 
even  than  the  first ;  one  which  comes  alike  to  man 
and  woman ;  the  argument  which  is  hoary  with 
age ;  that  which  prompts  the  converted  heathen 
to  send  the  Gospel  to  other  heathen:  it  is  the 
voice  of  a  risen  Eedeemer  crying  in  the  ears  of 
apostles  in  an  imperative  command,  thundering 
through  the  ages  like  the  voice  of  mighty 
waters,  heard  by  the  men  of  this  generation 
"marching"  orders  which  the  Church  dare  not 
disobey.  "  All  power  is  given  unto  Me  in  heaven 
and  in  earth."  "  Go  ye,  therefore,  into  all  the 
world  and  preach  the  Gospel  to  every  creature." 
"  And  lo,  I  am  with  you  alway,  even  unto  the  end 
of  the  world." 


XI 

SYNODICAL  EVANGELIZATION 

In  the  year  1881  two  gentlemen  of  Louisville, 
Kentucky,  offered  to  duplicate  any  amount  of 
money  which  might  be  raised  by  the  Synod  of 
Kentucky  to  the  amount  of  $5,000  for  the  prose- 
cution of  evangelistic  work  in  that  State.  The 
synod  accepted  the  offer  and  entered  vigorously 
upon  an  aggressive  effort.  This  was  the  begin- 
ning of  a  movement  in  the  church  known  as  "  Syn- 
odical  Evangelization,"  which  afterwards  spread 
into  almost  all  the  synods  in  some  form ;  and  al- 
though abandoned  by  some,  is  still  in  operation  in  at 
least  one-half  of  the  synods  at  present.  The  plans 
of  the  synods  have  not  been  uniform,  but  there  has 
been  a  similarity  of  work ;  and  the  object  of  this 
chapter  is  to  give  some  account  of  this  aggressive 
effort  in  the  various  synods. 

1.  Alphabetically,  Alabama  comes  first.  In  the 
year  1892  the  following  action  was  taken  by  that 
synod : 

"  Kesolved,  That  a  Committee  of  fifteen  be  ap- 
pointed at  this  meeting  of  synod  to  be  known  as 
the  Executive  Committee  of  Evangelistic  Labor, 
which  shall  be  authorized  to  inaugurate  a  general 
work  of  evangelization  within  the  bounds  of  synod. 
This  Committee  shall  have  power  to  employ  a  fi- 

2l8 


Synodical  Evangelization  219 

nancial  agent,  to  collect  money  for  this  purpose  in 
all  our  churches,  to  engage  evangelists  and  direct 
their  movements." 

The  Committee  was  appointed  and  the  agent 
elected.  He  secured  $2,514.05  the  first  year.  Dur- 
ing that  year  five  evangelists  were  employed  for 
part  of  the  time  and  a  total  of  $6,T82.75  was  col- 
lected in  cash  and  subscriptions  for  the  work ;  and 
over  two  hundred  persons  received  on  profession 
of  faith.  The  synod  decided  to  try  to  raise  $10,000 
the  next  year.  In  1893  the  evangelists  held  fifty- 
five  protracted  services,  made  1,464  pastoral  visits, 
preached  1,264  sermons,  ordained  fourteen  elders 
and  thirteen  deacons,  organized  four  new  churches, 
witnessed  746  confessions,  received  109  members 
on  certificate  and  601  on  examination ;  and 
$8,272.52  was  subscribed  and  collected  for  the 
work.  A  good  deal  of  colportage  work  was  done 
also  by  this  Committee  this  year.  In  1894  the 
Committee  had  three  evangelists.  During  this 
year  fifty  meetings  were  held,  1,200  sermons 
preached,  1,700  visits  made,  542  members  received 
on  examination,  and  ninety  by  certificate,  and 
$5,198.10  received  in  cash  and  subscription.  The 
reports  for  the  succeeding  years  remain  about  the 
same  each  year  until  the  work  was  abandoned  in 
1898. 

The  reason  for  discontinuing  is  stated  in  the  fol- 
lowing resolution :  "  In  view  of  the  fact  that  there 
has  been  for  several  years  past  very  little  differ- 
ence in  the  amount  given  by  the  three  presby- 
teries ;  and  therefore  each  presbytery  in  the  di- 


220  At  Our  Own  Door 

vision  of  funds  has  received  back  and  expended  in 
its  own  work  approximately  the  same  amount  that 
has  been  raised  by  itself  (the  Presbytery  of  Tusca- 
loosa excepted  this  year) ;  and  that  we  believe  a 
larger  amount  can  and  will  be  raised  by  each  pres- 
bytery for  its  individual  work  than  for  the  work 
of  the  synod  as  a  whole ;  and  in  the  strong,  and 
we  believe  almost  universal,  desire  on  the  part  of 
the  constituents  of  the  different  presbyteries  to 
prosecute  their  own  evangelistic  work ;  therefore, 
we  recommend  that  the  Sy nodical  Evangelistic 
work  be  discontinued,  and  that  the  several  pres- 
byteries be  urged  to  take  up  this  great  and  press- 
ing branch  of  our  work  and  prosecute  it  to  the  full 
extent  of  their  ability."  Since  1898  each  presby- 
tery has  carried  on  its  own  work  in  accordance 
with  the  above  resolution. 

2.  The  Synod  of  Arkansas  adopted  its  present 
plan  of  home  mission  work  in  1899,  so  that  it  is 
now  only  five  years  old.  The  plan  is  very  simple. 
The  Synodical  Committee  is  made  up  of  the  chair- 
men of  the  Presbyterial  Committees,  four  in  num- 
ber, and  a  member  at  large.  This  Committee 
meets  regularly  once  a  year  to  plan  its  work  for  the 
succeeding  year.  A  canvas  is  made  once  a  year  for 
the  raising  of  funds  and  laying  the  burden  of  the 
work  on  the  churches.  The  Presbyterial  Com- 
mittees conduct  their  work  as  usual  and  are  aided 
by  the  Synodical  Committee  and  evangelists. 

About  $16,000  have  been  expended  in  this  work 
during  the  period  of  1899-1903,  employing  nine 
evangelists,  whose  time  aggregated  two  hundred 


Synodical  Evangelization  221 

and  four  months  or  seventeen  years  evangelistic 
work  for  one  man.  The  number  of  members  added 
on  profession  is  928,  by  letter  887,  total  1,815. 
Manses  have  been  built  at  eight  or  more  points, 
valued  at  about  $10,000.  Churches  have  been 
erected  at  nine  points  valued  at  $25,000.  There 
are  now  three  evangelists  at  work  and  two  more 
are  wanted.  There  are  twenty-three  counties  out 
of  seventy-five  in  which  there  is  not  a  Presbyterian 
Church,  and  twenty-one  with  only  one.  But  there 
are  many  towns  and  country  localities  where 
churches  could  be  organized  if  the  money  and 
men  were  available.  Arkansas  offers  a  fine  field  of 
promise  for  home  mission  work. 

3.  The  Synod  of  Florida  as  at  present  consti- 
tuted came  into  being  December  2,  1891.  In  the 
year  1879  the  Presbytery  of  St.  Johns,  then  ex- 
tending over  the  whole  part  of  the  State  east  of 
the  Suwanee  River,  began  a  good  evangelistic 
work  in  the  lower  counties  of  the  State.  This 
work  was  continued  until  1890,  and  did  very  much 
towards  making  possible  the  erection  of  the  Synod 
of  Florida  in  1891.  Two  evangelists  covered  the 
whole  territory,  and  a  third  did  some  work  in  two 
of  the  counties  of  middle  Peninsular  Florida.  The 
organization  of  the  churches  of  Tampa,  Plant 
City,  Braidentown,  Clear  Water,  Dade  City  and 
Bloomingdale  was  the  main  outcome  of  this  evan- 
gelistic effort. 

At  the  meeting  of  synod  in  1886  (South  Georgia 
and  Florida)  a  Committee  on  evangelistic  work 
was  appointed,  and  authorized  to  raise  the  sum  of 


222  At  Our  Own  Door 

$2,500  and  begin  the  work.  Two  evangelists  were 
employed,  who  devoted  their  labors  to  the  Presby- 
tery of  Florida,  comprising  the  territory  west  of 
the  Suwanee  River.  The  Committee  failed  to 
collect  the  needful  funds,  so  that  after  a  year  or 
two  this  work  had  to  be  abandoned.  Some  addi- 
tions were  made  to  the  churches  already  estab- 
lished, but  no  new  places  were  occupied  and  no 
churches  were  organized.  Beyond  this  effort  noth- 
ing was  ever  done  by  the  former  Synod  of  South 
Georgia  and  Florida. 

Evangelistic  work  has  often  been  discussed  in 
the  present  Synod  of  Florida.  The  way  never 
seemed  open  to  attempt  anything,  however,  until 
the  meeting  of  1902  in  the  City  of  Jacksonville. 
The  synod  was  of  the  opinion  that  "  it  is  now  time 
that  we  should  employ  with  the  aid  of  the  As- 
sembly's Committee,  an  evangelist  for  the  work  in 
our  State."  A  special  Committee,  centrally  lo- 
cated, was  appointed,  to  which  was  entrusted  the 
raising  of  the  funds  and  the  securing  of  an  evan- 
gelist. This  Committee  was  "authorized  to  en- 
deavor to  secure  by  correspondence  or  personal 
solicitation  at  least  $600  from  individuals,  $400 
from  the  churches  of  the  synod  and  $500  from 
the  Assembly's  Committee,  to  pay  the  salary 
of  an  evangelist  for  the  work  in  our  synod," 
Nothing  as  yet  has  been  accomplished  in  this 
direction. 

4.  In  the  year  1890  the  Synod  of  Georgia 
inaugurated  within  its  bounds  the  w^ork  of  Sy nod- 
ical Evangelization,  or  rather  encouraged  the  effort. 


Synodical  Evangelization  223 

At  first  it  was  largely  voluntary  work  begun 
by  Drs.  Barnett,  Strickler  and  Gaines,  made 
possible  by  the  individual  gifts  of  persons  and 
churches  in  or  near  Atlanta.  Later  the  synod 
formally  undertook  the  work  by  appointing  an 
Executive  Committee,  composed  of  the  presby- 
terial  chairmen  of  the  presbyteries  and  several 
laymen  in  Atlanta.  The  Committee  met  in  De- 
cember and  June  each  year  and  mapped  out  the 
work  on  a  basis  of  $8,000,  but  only  about  $5,000 
was  actually  received  annually. 

The  work  had  a  twofold  aspect.  It  not  only 
employed  evangelists  but  supplemented  the  salaries 
of  weak  groups  and  sustained  them  until  they  be- 
came self-supporting  or  were  abandoned  as  hope- 
less. For  about  five  years  the  work  prospered 
greatly ;  then,  owing  to  the  fact  that  presbyteries 
began  to  withdraw  or  cooperate  only  partially,  it 
declined  till  it  was  abandoned  in  1900  and  re- 
manded to  each  presbytery,  to  be  carried  on  sepa- 
rately by  presbyteries  doing  their  own  evangelistic 
work. 

During  this  period  of  evangelistic  effort  the 
Synod  of  Georgia  made  its  greatest  progress, 
growing  from  about  10,000  communicants  to  15,- 
000,  and  from  151  churches  to  210.  An  impetus 
was  given  to  evangelism  which  is  still  felt,  and 
each  presbytery  is  prosecuting  an  aggressive  work 
with  varying  degrees  of  success. 

5.  Synodical  Evangelization  was  Dr.  Stuart 
Robinson's  last  favorite  scheme  of  aggressive 
church  work.     It  was  inaugurated  by  the  Synod  of 


224  ^^  ^^''  ^^"  Door 

Kentucky  October,  1881,  a  few  days  after  his 
death  and  chiefly  under  his  influence,  and  under 
the  immediate  inspiration  of  a  telegram  from  Col. 
Bennett  H.  Young  and  K.  S.  Veech,  Esq.,  ofi!ering 
"to  double  any  amount  between  $2,500  and  $5,000, 
which  may  be  raised  by  the  synod  for  evangelistic 
labor  within  its  bounds."  This  generous  offer  was 
accepted  with  appropriate  expressions  of  gratitude. 
An  Executive  Committee  was  elected  to  have 
charge  of  the  work  and  instructed  to  apportion 
$5,000  among  the  churches. 

It  consists  at  present  of  the  Chairmen  of  six 
Presbyterial  Committees  of  home  missions  who  are 
members  ex-officio  and  fifteen  other  members  who 
are  elected  by  the  synod,  and  including  three 
elders  and  two  laymen  and  the  chairman,  whose 
duties  are  largely  those  of  a  secretary  or  superin- 
tendent, and  upon  whom  chiefly  rests  the  burden 
of  responsibility  for  the  success  of  the  work. 
This  Committee  is  the  agency  through  which  the 
presbyteries  cooperate  to  their  mutual  advantage 
in  the  prosecution  of  the  work  within  their  re- 
spective bounds.  It  always  meets  a  few  days  after 
the  adjournment  of  the  synod  to  formulate  a 
schedule  of  operation  for  the  year,  to  consider  the 
needs  of  particular  fields,  to  make  such  changes  in 
the  apportionments  and  appropriations  as  may  seem 
proper,  and  to  do  whatever  else  may  be  necessary 
for  the  best  interests  of  this  cause  within  constitu- 
tional limits.  Other  meetings  are  held  at  stated 
times  and  on  special  occasions.  Three  presbyteries 
have  always  done  some  mission  work  within  their 


Synodical  Evangelization  225 

respective  bounds  in  addition  to  the  work  done 
through  the  Synod's  Evangelistic  Committee. 

This  remarkable  movement  has  been  character- 
ized from  its  beginning  (1)  by  the  earnest  advocacy 
of  the  foremost  men  of  the  synod,  with  whom  it 
has  ever  been  a  favorite  cause ;  (2)  the  larger  gifts 
of  a  number  of  generous  friends ;  and  (3)  by  the 
apportionment  among  the  churches  of  the  amount 
called  for  by  the  synod  each  year,  generally  $10,- 
000.  The  value  of  its  direct  and  indirect  results 
has  exceeded  the  largest  expectations  of  its  most 
enthusiastic  friends.  For  twenty-two  years  there 
has  been  an  average  of  forty  or  more  laborers  em- 
ployed, including  synodical  evangelists,  presbyte- 
rial  evangelists,  local  home  missionaries,  lay  work- 
ers (chiefly  theological  students)  and  consecrated 
women  who  conduct  Sabbath-schools  and  catechet- 
ical classes  and  distribute  Bibles  and  render  other 
kindred  service.  A  total  of  $239,000  has  been 
contributed  and  expended,  eighty-five  churches 
have  been  organized,  seventy-five  houses  of  wor- 
ship have  been  erected  and  paid  for,  120  Sabbath- 
schools  have  been  gathered  and  sustained,  twenty- 
eight  counties  have  been  entered  for  the  first  time 
by  our  church  and  occupied.  The  numerical  net 
gain  of  the  synod  has  been  100  per  cent.  The  in- 
crease in  the  number  of  candidates  for  the  minis- 
try, the  impetus  given  to  educational  and  other 
church  work,  the  spirit  of  esprit  de  corps  awak- 
ened, the  Christian  courage  enkindled,  the  enthu- 
siasm aroused  and  the  influence  exerted  upon  other 
synods   and   denominations,   stimulating  and  in- 


226  At  Our  Own  Door 

spiring  them  to  undertake  greater  things  for  the 
Master  along  similar  lines,  exceed  by  far  the  nu- 
merical increase  and  territorial  expansion.  To  ap- 
preciate more  fully  these  results,  it  must  be  re- 
membered that  "  for  forty  years  there  had  been  no 
territorial  or  numerical  growth  "  of  Presbyterian- 
ism  in  Kentucky,  until  God  used  Dr.  Robinson's 
influence  and  the  consecrated  thousands  of  Colonel 
Young  and  Mr.  Yeech  to  move  the  synod  of  Ken- 
tucky to  branch  out  for  the  first  time  in  the  his- 
tory of  our  Church,  in  the  work  of  Synodical 
Evangelization. 

6.  The  Synod  of  Louisiana  which  was  erected 
in  November,  1901,  covers  the  State  of  Louisiana 
and  two  counties  of  Mississippi.  The  population 
of  this  territory  is  in  round  numbers  1,500,000. 
Of  these  6,469  are  Presbyterians.  This  member- 
ship is  divided  among  three  presbyteries. 

Home  mission  work  in  Louisiana  and  Eed  River 
Presbyteries  is  done  under  the  supervision  of  Pres- 
byterial  Committees,  which  cooperate  with  the 
Synodical  Committee,  the  latter  securing  and  dis- 
bursing all  funds.  This  Synodical  Committee  is 
composed  of  the  chairmen  of  the  Presbyterial 
Home  Mission  Committees,  and  one  minister  and 
one  elder  from  the  Presbyteries  of  Red  River  and 
Louisiana,  and  two  ministers  and  one  elder  from 
New  Orleans  Presbytery.  It  is  elected  annually 
by  the  synod.  The  executive  work  of  the  Synod- 
ical Committee  is  done  by  a  sub-committee  of  five, 
which  meets  monthly  in  New  Orleans. 

New  Orleans  Presbytery  supports  and  directs 


Synodical  Evangelization  227 

independently  her  own  work  and  besides  contrib- 
utes a  pro  rata  to  the  Synodical  Committee  for  use 
in  the  other  parts  of  the  State.  The  Home  Mission 
Committee  of  this  presbytery  has  under  its  care, 
in  addition  to  the  work  usually  denominated  as 
home  missions,  interesting  missions  to  resident 
Italians,  French,  Chinese  and  negroes. 

The  home  mission  work  in  Louisiana  is  en- 
tirely self-supporting.  Last  year  this  synod  aided 
forty-six  churches  within  the  sjmod,  nine  in  the 
Presbytery  of  Louisiana,  nineteen  in  New  Orleans 
Presbytery  and  eighteen  in  Eed  Eiver  Presbytery. 

7.  The  Synod  of  Mississippi  prosecuted  vigor- 
ously for  some  years  aggressive  work,  but  at  Co- 
lumbus in  1902  the  committee  was  dissolved  and 
Synodical  Evangelization  abandoned.  Correspond- 
ence failed  to  obtain  the  details  in  reference  to  the 
work  of  this  synod ;  but  its  committee  was  consti- 
tuted very  much  as  in  other  synods,  and  the  suc- 
cess and  work  done  differed  very  little  from  the 
others. 

8.  The  Synod  of  Missouri  has  been  in  connec- 
tion with  the  Assembly  twenty-seven  years.  This 
time  with  reference  to  home  missions  may  be 
divided  into  two  periods  of  twelve  years  each,  and 
a  shorter  one  of  three  years.  During  the  first 
twelve  years,  the  home  mission  work  was  carried 
on  by  the  presbyteries  independently;  but  little 
evangelistic  work  was  done  except  as  pastors  found 
time  for  it.  The  additions  were  not  large  and  the 
net  growth  almost  nothing,  as  the  figures  show. 
There   were  in  1874,   sixty-eight  ministers,   141 


228  At  Our  Own  Door 

churches,  and  8,000  members;  and  in  1886,  sev- 
enty-seven ministers,  138  churches,  and  8,870 
members,  or  a  loss  of  three  churches  and  a  gain  of 
nine  ministers,  and  only  870  members  in  twelve 
years.  There  was,  however,  better  organization, 
and  a  decided  increase  in  contributions  to  all 
causes,  both  at  home  and  abroad. 

During  the  next  twelve  years  there  was  a  great 
change  both  in  methods  and  results.  All  the  pres- 
byteries united  on  one  general  work  under  the 
direction  of  a  Synodical  Evangelistic  Committee. 
An  average  of  $5,000  a  year  was  given  for  special 
evangelistic  effort ;  and  from  one  to  six  evangelists 
were  employed  every  year,  beginning  January, 
1886.  The  work  of  these  evangelists  was  greatly 
blessed;  and  as  the  direct  result  of  their  labor, 
during  twelve  years,  there  were  4,441  additions  on 
profession  of  faith,  forty-three  churches  were  orga- 
nized, including  three  among  the  negroes,  and 
thirty-eight  church  buildings  erected  at  a  cost  of 
$50,000.  Nine  counties  hitherto  unoccupied  by 
either  synod  were  entered ;  and  the  net  gain  to 
the  synod  during  this  period  was  twelve  ministers, 
thirty-four  churches,  and  4,278  members,  or  an  in- 
crease of  fifty  per  cent.  There  was  also  an  in- 
crease in  total  "benevolences"  in  1898  over  those 
of  1886  of  $10,961,  and  in  total  contributions  of 
$17,382.  Best  of  all  the  whole  synod  was  greatly 
encouraged,  and  a  new  life  was  infused  into  every 
part  and  department  of  the  church's  work.  The 
past  three  years  have  witnessed  the  same  contin- 
ued prosperity  of  the  work. 


Synodical  Evangelization  229 

9.  In  North  Carolina,  synodical  evangelistic 
work  has  been  in  operation  since  1889.  In  each  of 
the  eight  presbyteries  composing  the  synod  there  is 
a  Home  Mission  Committee.  The  several  chairmen 
constitute  the  Synodical  Committee.  The  synod 
elects  a  superintendent  who  is  ex-ofBcio  member 
of  said  Committee  and  chairman  of  the  same.  One 
general  evangelist  devotes  his  whole  time  to  hold- 
ing missions  in  the  mission  field.  His  time  is 
divided  among  the  presbyteries  as  the  needs  de- 
mand by  the  Synodical  Committee ;  and  the  evan- 
gelist is  under  the  direction  of  the  Presbyterial 
Committee  in  whose  presbytery  he  labors.  The 
work  is  supported  by  church  collections  in  the 
month  of  June  and  subscriptions  taken  by  the 
superintendent  and  cash  offerings  received  by  the 
general  evangelist  at  the  close  of  the  meetings  held 
by  him. 

The  results  of  the  work  may  be  judged  by  the 
fact,  that  fourteen  years  ago  thirty-eight  counties 
out  of  ninety-seven  were  without  Presbyterian 
Churches,  now  only  eleven  are  destitute  of  Presby- 
terian Churches.  From  one  to  five  churches  have 
been  organized  in  the  twenty-seven  counties  opened 
up.  There  have  been  over  10,000  professions  of 
faith  under  the  preaching  of  the  evangelists  em- 
ployed by  this  Committee,  and  an  average  of  four 
churches  organized  each  year. 

At  present  the  Committee  has  under  its  super- 
vision about  thirty  workers,  consisting  of  evan- 
gelists, teachers,  colporteurs,  etc.  For  all  its  local 
work,  including  presbyterial  and  synodical,  North 


230  At  Our  Own  Door 

Carolina  raises  annually  $30,000,  the  largest 
amount  of  any  synod  in  the  Assembly. 

10.  The  Synod  of  South  Carolina  was  the  last 
of  all  to  undertake  synodical  evangelization,  ob- 
jection being  raised  against  its  constitutionality. 
Some  of  the  presbyteries  have  never  entered  into 
the  work  fully,  but  given  only  partial  assistance. 
A  few  years  ago  a  Synodical  Committee  was  ap- 
pointed whose  composition  is  made  up  of  members 
from  each  of  the  six  presbyteries,  ordinarily  a 
minister  and  an  elder,  but  there  is  one  exception 
to  this  rule.  The  chairman  is  elected  by  the  synod  ; 
and  all  the  members  for  one  year.  Meetings  of  the 
Committee  are  held  at  the  call  of  the  chairman, 
who  is  also  secretary  and  treasurer. 

At  the  meeting  of  synod  in  1902  this  committee 
was  directed  as  far  as  possible  to  confine  its  work 
to  evangelistic  labor  strictly,  and  leave  all  susten- 
tation  work  to  the  Presby  terial  Committees.  This 
has  been  the  endeavor  of  the  Committee  during 
this  year.  There  are  four  evangelists  under  the 
care  of  the  Committee.  Six  small  churches  have 
been  supplied  by  these  men.  Last  year  there  were 
eight  others,  which  have  now  been  committed  to 
presbyterial  control.  The  State  has  over  40,000 
cotton  mill  operatives,  who  represent  a  population 
of  100,000  souls. 

The  synod  has  authorized  the  Committee  to  raise 
$5,000  annually  for  the  work ;  but  of  this  sum 
only  about  $2,000  has  been  actually  raised.  There 
are  no  financial  agents  of  the  Committee.  At  the 
meeting  of  1903  synod  elected  a  superintendent 


Synodical  Evangelization  231 

for  the  State  and  a  general  evangelist,  looking  to  a 
larger  aggressive  effort. 

11.  The  Synod  of  Tennessee  as  now  consti- 
tuted only  came  into  existence  in  1901.  Up  to  that 
time  it  had  been  divided  between  the  Synods  of 
Memphis  and  Nashville.  The  present  synod  at  its 
first  meeting  elected  a  Committee  of  Synodical 
Missions,  but  as  yet  has  not  succeeded  in  launch- 
ing the  work.     It  is  still  in  contemplation. 

12.  The  Synod  of  Texas  inaugurated  its  synod- 
ical mission  work  in  1898,  by  adopting  the  follow- 
ing resolutions  : 

"  (a)  That  synod  take  up  evangelistic  work  sep- 
arated from  the  remaining  branches  of  home  mis- 
sion work,  which  shall  be  left  to  the  control  of 
the  presbyteries. 

"  (h)  That  in  order  to  this,  synod  appoint  a 
Committee  of  eleven,  four  ministers  and  seven 
ruling  elders,  of  which  five  shall  be  a  quorum,  and 
to  which  shall  be  committed  the  planning  of  this 
work. 

"  (c)  That  this  Committee  be  advised  to  em- 
ploy as  soon  as  practicable  one  or  more  evangel- 
ists as  the  funds  in  hand  may  justify,  and  to  se- 
cure such  funds  the  Committee  is  authorized  to 
solicit  subscriptions  for  this  work  in  our  churches, 
with  the  consent  of  pastor  and  session. 

"  (d)  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  synodical  evan- 
gelists to  solicit  funds,  and  arouse  interest  in  the 
work  in  every  proper  way,  and  hold  meetings  as 
the  occasion  may  require. 

"  {e)    That  these  evangelists  shall  labor  under 


232  At  Our  Own  Door 

the  joint  direction  of  the  Synodical  Evangelistic 
Committee  and  the  Presbyterial  Committees  of 
Home  Mission,  in  whose  bounds  they  are  labor- 
ing. 

"  (/)  That  this  work  shall  be  carried  on  inde- 
pendently of  the  Assembly's  Committee,  the  funds 
for  this  work  being  received  and  dispensed  by  the 
treasurer  of  Synod's  Evangelistic  Committee. 

"  ( g)  That  this  work  shall  not  interfere  with 
any  home  mission  work  of  the  presbyteries,  now 
existing  or  that  may  hereafter  be  planned." 

For  the  first  year  the  Committee  could  secure  an 
evangelist  for  only  six  months,  whose  report  shows 
that  he  held  meetings  in  ten  churches,  preached 
201  sermons,  and  travelled  2,000  miles.  The  work 
was  continued  at  irregular  intervals  during  1900, 
but  no  results  are  given.  In  1901  the  evangelists 
held  "  twenty-one  meetings,  extending  from  ten  to 
fifteen  days  each.  Members  received,  342;  chil- 
dren baptized  and  dedicated  to  the  Lord,  169  ;  and 
many  family  altars  established.  In  several  churches 
the  members  were  increased  fifty  to  one  hundred 
per  cent. ;  church  lots  were  bought  and  paid  for, 
and  six  to  eight  thousand  dollars  raised  for  church 
lots,  buildings,  pastors'  salaries,"  etc. 

In  1902,  eighteen  meetings  were  held ;  in  which 
"  263  were  received  into  the  church  ;  sixty-six  in- 
fants were  baptized  ;  and  money  or  pledges  aggre- 
gating about  $1,688  received  for  the  work ; 
$2,641.75  was  raised  to  pay  off  balance  on  pastors' 
salaries  and  church  debts ;  many  family  altars 
were  established ;  and  in  some  cases  more  than 


Synodical  Evangelization  233 

fifty  per  cent,  added  to  the  church  membership." 
This  is  a  specimen  of  the  reports  year  by  year ; 
and  the  work  is  still  continuing. 

13.  The  evangelistic  work  of  the  Synod  of 
Virginia  is  conducted  by  a  Committee  which  is 
elected  every  year.  At  first  the  Committee  was 
widely  scattered  over  the  synod,  each  presbytery 
being  represented.  This  plan  was  cumbersome 
and  caused  needless  delays  and  expense  in  the  con- 
duct of  the  work.  The  Committee  is  now  small 
and  made  up  mainly  of  ministers  and  elders  in  one 
locality,  and  this  meets  easily  and  with  little  ex- 
pense on  the  call  of  the  chairman,  who  is  also 
treasurer. 

{a)  It  is  charged  with  the  duty  of  electing  the 
evangelists,  of  locating  them  for  work,  and  of 
raising  funds  for  their  support.  Only  at  the  re- 
quest of  a  presbytery  can  the  Committee  send  an 
evangelist  into  its  bounds ;  and  after  assignment 
to  any  particular  presbytery  the  work  of  the  evan- 
gelist is  entirely  under  the  control  of  the  home 
mission  Committee  of  that  presbytery,  thus  pre- 
serving presbyterial  authority. 

(b)  The  evangelists  are  always  regularly  or- 
dained ministers  of  the  Gospel,  and  generally  they 
are  men  who  have  proven  themselves  to  be  con- 
servative, evangelistic  pastors  of  some  years'  ex- 
perience. Some  are  located  at  strategic  points  and 
kept  there  as  long  as  it  may  be  necessary  for  the 
development  of  the  work,  and  the  forming  of  self- 
sustaining  charges;  others  are  kept  in  a  presby- 
tery from  year  to  year  according  as  the  needs  re- 


234  At  Our  Own  Door 

quire,  and  others  pass  from  one  presbytery  to 
another  as  the  general  work  demands.  They  open 
up  new  fields,  settle  pastors,  visit  weak  and  vacant 
churches,  infuse  new  life  into  them,  help  the  pas- 
tors in  home  mission  churches  by  protracted 
services,  organize  Sunday-schools  and  raise  funds 
for  the  evangelistic  work,  for  church  erection,  for 
debts  on  churches,  etc. 

(c)  The  results  have  been  very  gratifying  in 
proportion  to  the  funds  supplied  and  the  men  em- 
ployed. The  following  figures  give  only  a  glimpse 
of  the  work  from  1891  to  1902  :  Average  per  year 
of  men  at  work,  six  ;  members  added  to  the  Presby- 
terian Church  on  profession,  3,706  ;  members  added 
to  sister  churches,  hundreds ;  churches  organized, 
thirty -five  ;  money  raised  by  churches,  $49,037.63  • 
by  evangelists  $59,637.70,  by  individuals  $10,- 
231.28 ;  the  total  amount  of  money  raised  being 
$118,906.61. 

14.  The  following  table  of  comparative  statistics 
exhibits  the  distribution  of  Presbyterian  strength 
throughout  the  Assembly  by  synods,  and  reveals  at 
a  glance  where  the  greatest  destitution  lies.  Statis- 
tics of  other  evangelical  churches  furnish  a  painful 
exhibit  of  our  comparative  weakness,  in  numbers 
at  least.  They  also  show  that  destitution  from  a 
Presbyterian  standpoint  does  not  necessarily  indi- 
cate religious  destitution.  The  inability  of  Presby- 
terianism  to  obtain  a  foothold  in  many  communi- 
ties often  means  that  it  has  delayed  till  the  ground 
is  thoroughly  occupied  by  other  evangelical 
churches;  and  it  is  often  a  waste  of  men  and 


Synodical  Evangelization 


235 


means  to  attempt  to  recover  lost  opportunities  and 
lost  ground.  Is  it  not  wiser  and  more  Christian  to 
attempt  to  plant  our  principles  in  comparatively 
unoccupied  territory,  really  destitute  not  only  from 
our  standpoint,  but  in  a  religious  sense  ? 


0 

i 

a 

d 

a^"    V 

S 

■^ 

ti 

SYNOD 

0 

CO 

2§.     SS«|5§ 

S 

3 
•S 

03 
0, 

03 
3 

a 

s2:os,'^S|i^ 

S 

1 

8 

§• 

2 

a;g  o§ 

d^ 

0  0 

1 

s 

A 

s, 

Qj 

w^ 

^G 

JZi 

^ 

M 

a 

w 

0 

Alabama 

1,828,697 

14089 

~75 

69 

9 

11 

134424  122498 

7874 

3000 

Arkansas 

1,311,564 

5762 

170 

75 

23 

21 

75000 

65000 

3300 

10500 

Florida 

528,542 

4347 

75 

45 

6 

12 

25000 

25000 

3100 

1700 

Georgia 

2,216,331 

16521 

75 

137 

39 

45 

202724 

171542 

8100 

600 

Kentucky 

2,147,174 

20241 

91 

119 

22 

60 

200000 

100000 

4200 

20000 

Louisiana 

1,381,625 

6469 

112 

59 

29 

11 

41000 

30000 

7837 

1000 

Mississippi 

1,551,270 

13182 

50 

75 

6 

13 

99662 

86134 

4001 

6000 

Missouri 

3,106,665 

12818 

227 

114 

19 

21 

175000 

230000 

7118 

43000 

N.  Carolina 

1,893,810 

36762 

35 

98 

11 

14 

169436 

141284 

5128 

4000 

S.  Carolina 

1,340,316 

20595 

28 

41 

1 

4 

101077 

77764 

7557 

4000 

Tennessee 

2,020,666 

18984 

84 

99 

42 

17 

137850 

154630 

5700 

40000 

Texas 

3,048,710 

21213 

120 

243 

93 

68 

198377 

200000 

5000 

40000 

Virginia 

4,003,034 

44149 

60 

139 

32 

40 

122138 

176200 

39000 

30000 

(Virginia  includes  three  states:  Virginia,  West  Virginia  and  Maryland.) 


A  study  of  these  figures  reveals  some  startling 
facts.  The  two  Carolinas  lead  all  the  synods  in 
the  percentage  of  Presbyterians  to  the  white  popu- 
lation ;  and  yet  the  statistics  of  1902  compared 
with  1903  show  an  actual  decrease  of  the  church 
in  South  Carolina ;  whilst  North  Carolina  having 
the  largest  Presbyterian  population  of  any  State  in 
the  Assembly,  with  its  splendid  synodical  work, 
made  only  a  small  net  gain  in  membership.  Mis- 
sissippi and  Virginia  stand  next  in  Presbyterian 
strength,  in  proportion  to  white  population ;  and 
yet  they  barely  held  their  own  during  the  past 
year.     Alabama,  Florida  and  Georgia  stand  side 


236  At  Our  Own  Door 

by  side,  each  having  one  Presbyterian  to  every 
seventy-five  of  white  population ;  and  yet  Georgia, 
separated  from  South  Carolina  by  a  river  only,  has 
thirty-nine  counties  without  a  Presbyterian  Church 
and  forty-five  with  only  one ;  so  that  practically 
eighty-four  of  its  137  counties  are  destitute  of 
Presbyterianism,  making  it  one  of  the  weakest  in 
the  whole  Assembly.  Kentucky  with  its  splendid 
well-organized  sy nodical  work  actually  lost  ground 
the  past  year.  Missouri  has  the  appearance  of 
being  weakest,  having  only  one  Presbyterian  to 
every  227  of  white  population ;  but  if  we  take  ac. 
count  of  the  Northern  Presbyterians,  it  would  con- 
tain about  one  in  every  one  hundred,  which  would 
lift  it  above  some  of  the  others.  Texas  shows  only 
one  in  120,  and  Arkansas  one  in  170,  which  makes 
them  in  reality  the  most  destitute  from  a  Presby. 
terian  standpoint,  and  justifies  the  action  of  the 
Assembly  in  selecting  them  as  its  great  home  mis- 
sion field,  discriminating  in  their  favor  in  the  dis- 
tribution of  home  mission  funds.  Being  new  terri- 
tory in  the  West,  towards  which  the  tide  of  popu- 
lation is  pouring,  renders  them  not  only  the  needi- 
est, but  at  the  same  time  the  most  hopeful,  field 
for  the  planting  and  propagating  of  Presbyterian- 
ism. 

15.  The  threefold  division  of  home  missions 
into  Local,  Synodical  and  General,  is  rather  un- 
fortunate, and  somewhat  confusing  to  the  rank 
and  file  of  the  church.  It  would  be  far  wiser,  and 
more  efiicient  work  would  be  done,  if  there  were 
only  two  departments  :  Local  and  General  Assem- 


Synodical  Evangelization  237 

bly's  Home  Missions.  This  would  not  in  the 
slightest  interfere  with  synodical  work ;  but  on  the 
contrary,  give  it  greater  power  by  reason  of  the 
concentration  of  effort  and  forces.  It  seems  a 
waste  of  energy  and  a  needless  multiplication  of 
machinery  to  have  presbyterial  and  synodical  mis- 
sions both  undertaking  to  occupy  the  same  terri- 
tory. "Why  not  unite  all  the  local  forces  of  the 
Synod  in  one  great  synodical  evangelistic  effort  ? 
If  the  presbyteries  of  a  synod  can  combine  without 
friction  and  to  their  mutual  advantage  in  partial 
evangelistic  work,  why  not  in  the  whole  work  of 
the  synod  ?    In  union  there  is  strength. 

This  would  enable  every  synod  to  have  its  super- 
intendent of  missions ;  every  presbytery  would  be 
represented  on  the  Committee,  and  have  absolute 
control  of  the  operations  within  its  own  bounds. 
It  would  give  tremendous  potency  and  point  to  the 
meetings  of  synods.  In  all  probability  it  would 
double  the  efficiency  and  aggressiveness  of  the 
Church.  Might  it  not  supply  the  "  Missing  Link," 
which  would  make  our  system  more  successful  in 
its  operation  ?  In  cases  where  the  presbyteries  of 
a  synod  decline  to  unite  in  such  synodical  effort, 
each  could  do  its  own  work  separately,  and  in  that 
synod  there  could  be  presbyterial  local  home  mis- 
sions exclusively.  All  local  home  missions  in  a 
synod  would  then  be  either  presbyterial  exclusively 
or  synodical  exclusively,  as  determined  by  them- 
selves. It  would  prevent  friction,  confusion,  waste 
of  forces  and  the  multiplication  of  machinery. 
In  either  case,  whether  the  plan  of  local  home 


238  At  Our  Own  Door 

missions  in  a  synod  is  presbyterial  or  synodical, 
the  Assembly's  Committee  would  be  able  to  sup- 
plement the  efforts  of  the  weaker  portions  of  the 
church. 

All  parts  of  the  work  of  home  missions  would 
be  wisely  articulated,  and  well  adjusted  to  each 
other,  and  as  a  consequence  move  harmoniously 
towards  one  end.  Waste  force,  now  creating  fric- 
tion and  retarding  the  progress  of  the  whole, 
would  be  utilized  in  advancing  the  Kingdom  of 
Christ.  Presbyterianism  would  be  no  longer  "  a 
house  divided  against  itself."  Its  lack  of  aggres- 
siveness would  no  longer  be  a  reproach.  Every 
thoughtful  mind  recognizes  that  there  is  something 
lacking.  Every  earnest  soul  is  longing  and  pray- 
ing for  the  remedy.  Is  not  the  suggestion  worthy 
of  the  thoughtful  and  prayerful  consideration  of 
our  beloved  Church  ? 


XII 

ARGUMENT  AND  APPEAL 

"  The  insight  of  genius,"  said  Thomas  Carlyle, 
"  consists  in  cooperation  with  the  world's  real  tend- 
ency." The  instinct,  \vhich  can  read  the  signs  of 
the  times  in  the  commercial  world  and  forecast  the 
future,  spells  success.  The  trend  of  the  age  to- 
wards great  railroad  combinations,  billion  dollar 
steel  trusts,  etc.,  foreseen,  enabled  the  keen-eyed 
financier  to  use  the  world's  current  to  tide  him 
over  the  shallows  in  which  others  floundered, 
whilst  it  lifted  him  into  the  throne  of  commercial 
power — a  real  king,  greater  than  the  Monarch  of 
Britain  or  the  Czar  of  Russia.  In  like  manner  the 
Christian  who  shall  command  the  greatest  success 
in  advancing  the  kingdom  of  God  on  earth  must 
study  to  discover  which  way  God  is  moving  and 
"  keep  step  with  Jehovah."  It  is  what  some  one 
has  termed,  "  conspiring  with  God." 

Facts  are  the  fingers  of  God  in  history  pointing 
the  direction.  Facts  are  the  voice  of  God  in  prov- 
idence, like  the  pillar  of  cloud  by  day  and  of  fire 
by  night,  indicating  the  line  of  march.  Facts  are 
the  steps  of  God  in  the  Church,  leading  the  way. 
The  most  powerful  argument  for  home  missions  is 
the  logic  of  facts.  No  stronger  argument  for 
home  missions  has  been  attempted  in  this  volume 

239 


240  At  Our  Own  Door 

than  the  presentation  of  facts.  They  speak  for 
themselves  and  for  God.  This  closing  chapter  is  in- 
tended to  give  them  a  voice,  that  the  facts  them- 
selves may  appeal  to  the  Church  in  the  interest  of 
a  deep,  widespread,  powerful  revival  of  home  mis- 
sions, like  "  a  rushing  mighty  wind,"  as  at  Pente- 
cost. 

1.  World-wide  evangelism  in  obedience  to  the 
"  Marching  Orders  "  of  Christ  demands  the  ac- 
centuation of  home  missions  Jirst  in  "  the  order  of 
the  March."  "  That  repentance  and  remission  of 
sins  should  be  preached  in  His  name  among  all  na- 
tions, heginning  at  Jerusalem.''^ 

"  Save  America  to  save  the  world,"  is  both  good 
philosophy  and  true  Christianity.  "As  goes 
America,  so  goes  the  world,"  has  a  deeper  signifi- 
cance to-day,  owing  to  our  international  influence, 
than  when  uttered  by  Austin  Phelps  seventeen 
years  ago.  The  greatest  obstacle  to  foreign  mis- 
sions is  not  pagan  superstition  nor  heathen  philos- 
ophy. So  called  "  Christian  "  England  and  Amer- 
ica, not  only  give  the  gospel  to  the  heathen,  but  are 
themselves  the  greatest  hindrance  to  its  success. 
England  sends  more  opium  than  missionaries  to 
China.  Christian  people  saw  the  finger  of  God  in 
the  acquisition  of  the  Philippines  by  our  "  Chris- 
tian Nation."  "  We  double  freight  our  vessels  to 
Africa  and  the  Philippines  with  missionaries  on 
deck  and  rum  in  the  hold.  What  message  can  the 
missionary  bring  as  he  steps  from  the  gangway,  that 
is  not  paralyzed  by  the  cargo  rolled  out  on  the 
wharf  ?  "    We  supply  Japan  with  Bibles  and  the 


Argument  and  Appeal  241 

results  of  the  higher  criticism,  with  the  gospel  of 
Christ  and  "  the  gospel  of  dirt "  as  promulgated 
by  Huxley  and  the  gospel  of  doubt  as  inculcated 
by  Ingersoll.  Missionaries  among  the  heathen 
dread  nothing  so  much  as  our  ungodly  soldiers, 
merchants,  tourists,  etc.  The  Japan  student  who 
upon  landing  in  San  Francisco  fell  upon  his  knees 
and  thanked  God  that  he  was  at  last  upon  the  soil 
of  "  Christian "  America  was  rudely  awakened 
from  his  dream  of  ideal  Christianity  by  the  jeers 
and  ill  treatment  of  the  rabble,  "  certain  lewd  fel- 
lows of  the  baser  sort." 

"  "William  Kincaid,  after  years  of  devotion  to 
home  and  foreign  missions,  declares  that  'the 
planting  and  nurturing  of  churches  in  America  is 
our  first  and  best  work  for  the  world  /  our  first 
work  because  all  other  Christian  activities  grow 
from  and  depend  upon  this  ;  our  best  work  because 
in  no  other  place  on  earth  can  we  obtain  so  mighty  a 
purchase  for  the  elevation  of  mankind.'  *  Should 
America  fail,'  declares  Professor  Park,  '  the  world 
will  fail.''  And  if  further  testimony  were  needed 
to  mark  the  far-reaching  influence  of  home  mis- 
sions in  America  upon  the  fate  of  the  nations,  the 
stirring  words  of  Professor  Phelps,  addressed  to 
the  Home  Missionary  Convention  at  Chicago  in 
1881  might  be  added  : 

" '  The  evangelizing  of  America  is  the  work  of  an 
emergency.  That  emergency  is  not  paralleled  by 
the  spiritual  conditions  and  prospects  of  any  other 
country  on  the  globe.  The  element  of  time  must 
be  the  controlling  one  in  a  wise  policy  for  its  con- 


242  At  Our  Own  Door 

version,  and  for  the  use  of  it  as  an  evangelizing 
power  over  the  nations.  That  which  is  to  be  done 
here  must  be  done  soon.  If  this  continent  is  to  be 
saved  for  Christ,  and  if  the  immeasurable  power 
of  its  resources  and  its  prestige  is  to  be  insured  to 
the  cause  of  the  wotWs  conversion,  the  critical 
bulk  of  the  work  must  be  done  now.  The  decisive 
blows  of  conquest  must  be  struck  now.  For  rea- 
sons of  exigency  equally  imperative  with  those 
which  crowded  Jerusalem  upon  the  attention  of 
the  Apostolic  pioneers,  this  country  stands  first  on 
the  roll  of  evangelical  enterprise  to-day.  This  as 
it  seems  to  me,  is  just  the  difference  to-day  be- 
tween the  Oriental  and  the  Occidental  nations,  as 
related  to  the  conversion  of  both  to  Christ.  The 
nations  whose  conversion  is  the  most  pressing  ne- 
cessity of  the  world  to-day  are  the  Occidental  na- 
tions. Those  whose  speedy  conversion  is  most  vital 
to  the  conversion  of  the  rest,  are  the  nations  of  the 
Occident.  The  pioneer  stock  of  mind  must  be  the 
Occidental  stock.  The  pioneer  races  must  be  the 
western  races.  And  of  all  the  western  races,  who 
that  can  read  skillfully  the  Providence  of  God,  or 
can  read  it  at  all,  can  hesitate  in  affirming  that  the 
signs  of  divine  decree  point  to  this  land  of  ours,  as 
the  one  which  is  fast  gathering  to  itself  the  races 
which  must  take  the  lead  in  the  final  conflict  of 
Christianity  for  the  possession  of  the  world. 
Ours  is  the  elect  nation  for  the  Ages  to  come. 
We  are  the  chosen  people.  Ours  are  the  promises, 
promises  great  and  sure,  because  the  emergency  is 
great.     We  cannot  afford  to  wait.     If  we  cannot, 


Argument  and  Appeal  243 

the  world  cannot  afford  to  wait.  The  plans  of 
God  will  not  wait.  These  plans  seem  to  have 
brought  us  to  one  of  the  closing  stages  in  this 
world's  career,  in  which  we  can  no  longer  drift 
with  safety  to  our  destiny.  We  are  shut  up  to  a 
perilous  alternative.  Immeasurable  opportunities 
surround  and  overshadow  us.  Such,  as  I  read  it, 
is  the  central  fact  in  the  philosophy  of  American 
home  missions '  "  (Leavening  the  Nation). 

"  The  speedy  evangelization  of  the  home  field  is 
the  quickest  way  to  large  success  in  the  foreign 
field.  According  to  present  methods  of  propagat- 
ing the  Gospel  abroad  the  home  church  is  the  base 
of  supplies.  Hence,  there  must  be  enlargement 
at  home  or  shrinkage  abroad.  '  The  greatest  need 
of  the  foreign  field  is  a  revised,  reconsecrated,  and 
unified  home  church,'  said  Ex-President  Harrison 
in  his  classic  address  on  missions  before  the  Ecu- 
menical Missionary  Conference  in  ]S"ew  York. 
The  right  sort  of  home  missionary  work  quickens 
the  energies  of  God's  people,  unites  the  Church, 
and  begets  a  world-wide  missionary  zeal. 

"Let  us  apply  this  principle  in  the  concrete. 
Nine  years  ago  the  first  Presbyterian  church  at 
Newport  News,  Virginia,  had  a  membership  of 
thirty-four.  The  pastor  was  then  aided  by  the 
Home  Mission  Committee.  In  less  than  a  year 
the  church  assumed  self-support.  Since  that  time 
it  has  sent  off  a  colony,  the  Second  Presbyterian 
church,  with  a  membership  of  100,  and  is  at  pres- 
ent maintaining  a  flourishing  mission.  The  con- 
gregation has  built  three  houses  of  worship,  one 


244  At  Our  Own  Door 

of  them  a  beautiful  building  handsomely  equipped 
at  a  cost  of  $31,000.  The  church  has  risen  from 
the  weakest  of  any  denomination  in  the  city  to 
the  strongest,  and  is  contributing  liberally  to  all 
the  causes  of  beneficence,  notably  to  foreign  mis- 
sions "  (Rev.  P.  H.  Gwinn). 

Until  quite  recently  the  church  at  Moultrie,  Ga., 
was  aided  from  the  treasury  of  home  missions. 
ISTow  it  supports  its  pastor  all  his  time,  is  exceeded 
by  no  church  in  the  State  in  proportion  to  mem- 
bership in  gifts  to  home  missions,  and  supports  its 
own  missionary  in  the  Congo  Free  State,  and  it  is 
now  supporting  its  own  missionary  in  the  West. 
Illustrations  of  this  kind  might  be  multiplied  in- 
definitely and  in  any  direction.  The  strong 
churches  of  Texas,  Texarkana,  Sherman,  Dallas, 
etc.,  of  home  missionary  origin,  now  have  each 
its  own  representative  in  the  foreign  field.  The 
surest  and  quickest  method  of  winning  Japan, 
China,  India,  Africa  and  the  Isles  of  the  sea  for 
Christ  is  "  Beginning  at  Jerusalem  " — by  winning 
America;  for,  said  Matthew  Arnold,  "America 
holds  the  future." 

2.  Presbyterianism  lays  the  obligation  of  home 
missions  upon  every  individual  member  of  our 
Church,  whose  very  constitution  and  history  make 
it  a  missionary  society  for  the  propagation  of  the 
faith.  The  Presbyterian  church  in  the  United 
States  had  its  origin  in  home  missions,  the  colonies 
being  at  that  time  a  part  of  the  Mother  Country, 
and  were  sustained  and  developed  by  men  and 
means  liberally  supplied  by  the  Mother  Churches 


Argument  and  Appeal  245 

of  Scotland  and  Ireland  for  the  benefit  of  their 
children  scattered  in  the  forests  of  America.  The 
very  existence  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  this 
country  is  Itself  a  noble  monument  to  home  mis- 
sions. The  first  act  of  its  organized  life  in  the 
meeting  of  the  first  General  Assembly  was  to 
launch  its  home  missionary  enterprise,  which  has 
since  reached  to  every  section  of  our  broad  land. 
It  has  been  characterized  in  all  of  its  varied  his- 
tory by  the  home  mission  spirit.  Some  of  the 
brightest  chapters  in  all  the  annals  of  its  existence 
are  the  records  of  its  home  mission  efforts.  Its 
children  yet  unborn  will  feel  a  pardonable  pride 
in  the  work  of  their  fathers  among  the  Indians,  as 
they  transmuted,  by  the  operation  of  divine  grace 
through  the  agency  of  home  missions,  thousands 
of  savages  into  Christian  people  and  children  of 
God.  Presbyterians  have  the  honor  of  being  the 
pioneers  in  Kew  Mexico,  Utah,  Alaska  and  many 
sections  of  the  great  West.  According  to  Secre- 
tary Thompson,  nine-tenths  of  the  Presbyterian 
churches  beyond  the  Mississippi  had  their  origin  in 
and  were  sustained  by  home  missions.  The  great 
Synod  of  Texas  is  a  standing  illustration  of  "  a 
handful  of  corn  in  the  earth  upon  the  top  of  the 
mountain,"  whose  "  fruit  shall  shake  like  Lebanon." 
"Presbyterian  missions  in  particular  have 
yielded  and  are  yielding  to-day  rich  spiritual  divi- 
dends. Presbyterianism  in  a  half  century  has 
organized  and  developed  2,000  churches  beyond 
the  Mississippi  River.  In  its  first  century's  work 
it  organized  or  aided  6,500  churches.    Place  the 


246  At  Our  Own  Door 

average  year's  service  in  these  6,500  churches  at 
fifty  years, — set  the  average  number  of  souls 
saved  in  each  one  at  but  ten  a  year,  and  the  stu- 
pendous result  is  3,250,000  saved  souls,  as  a  result 
of  Presbyterian  home  missions  !  If  one  soul  is 
worth  more  than  the  whole  world  who  can  ask  if 
Presbyterian  missions  pay,  in  view  of  3,250,000 
souls  saved  in  a  century !  Then  add  to  this  the 
value  of  missions  along  other  spiritual  lines, — the 
strengthening  of  the  tempted,  the  comforting  of 
the  afflicted,  the  supporting  of  the  dying,  the 
transformation  of  homes,  the  redemption  of  com- 
munities and  the  uplifting  of  entire  peoples  and 
populations  "  (Dr.  Sherman  Doyle). 

Home  missions  are  the  hope  of  the  future.  If 
the  Presbyterian  Church  is  to  grow  with  the 
growth  of  this  mavellously  developing  country ;  if 
her  glorious  heritage  of  the  past  is  to  be  the 
prophecy  of  a  more  glorious  future ;  if  her  sceptre 
of  influence  among  the  nations  is  not  to  depart  to 
some  other  branch  of  the  visible  church  ;  if  she  is 
to  meet  her  obligations  to  the  "  aliens  from  the 
commonwealth  of  Israel  "  in  her  midst — 9,000,000 
negroes,  12,000,000  foreigners,  2,000,000  mountain- 
eers, 300,000  Mexicans,  300,000  Mormons,  250,000 
Indians,  and  12,000,000  adults  in  the  United  States 
"  without  Christ  and  without  God  in  the  world  "  ; 
— if  she  is  to  fulfill  her  mission  amongst  men  and 
meet  the  expectations  of  the  Master;  then  must 
she  project  her  home  mission  work  on  a  still 
broader  basis,  and  gird  her  loins  for  a  still  more 
strenuous  effort.     If  John  Wesley  recognized  that 


Argument  and  Appeal  247 

"the  world  is  my  parish,"  can  the  Presbyterian 
Church  be  content  with  the  domain  of  less  extent  ? 
Every  loyal  child  of  the  church  who  would  see  her 
come  into  possession  of  her  heritage  must  aid  in 
her  home  mission  effort  of  winning  America,  that 
she  may  attain  her  destiny  "in  the  regions  be- 
yond." 

3.  Self-interest  necessitates  home  missions. 
Not  simply  the  salvation  of  myriads  of  the  lost, 
but  the  very  salvation  of  the  church  itself  depends 
upon  her  home  mission  zeal.  The  church  must 
evangelize  the  masses  or  they  will  paganize  her 
children  in  the  coming  generation.  The  moun- 
taineers are  an  object  lesson  of  warning,  children 
of  the  Covenanters  and  of  the  Scotch-Irish.  The 
slums  of  our  cities  are  the  degenerate  children  of 
the  church  largely,  whose  ancestors  gradually 
drifted  from  the  church,  by  the  way  of  neglect, 
into  the  cesspool  of  debauchery  and  criminality. 
Only  by  evangelizing  the  masses  can  our  country 
be  saved  from  the  fate  of  other  degenerate  nations. 
Dr.  C.  L.  Thompson  lifts  his  voice  in  eloquent 
warning : 

"  Our  Gospel  is  yet  little  more  than  a  voice  cry- 
ing in  the  wilderness.  It  has  not  evangelized  the 
people.  We  punctuate  our  creeds  with  stately 
church  spires  in  great  cities,  but  even  under  their 
shadow  the  people  die  friendless  and  unregarded. 
By  all  the  misery  and  wickedness,  by  all  the  doubt 
and  despair  of  our  congested  population,  we  are 
not  a  Christian  people.  By  the  infidelity  of  a 
thousand  new  communities  in  which  the  Church  is 


248  At  Our  Own  Door 

but  a  feeble  protest  against  conditions  she  has  not 
changed — we  are  not  a  Christian  people.  By  all 
the  sodden  sin  and  cruel  crimes  of  mining  camps, 
by  all  the  fever  of  mammon,  regardless  of  whom 
it  consumes — in  gay  capitals,  or  lonely  hamlets,  or 
moving  tents — we  are  not  a  Christian  people.  By 
all  the  menace  of  incoming  tides  of  population,  east 
or  west,  infidel  or  pagan — we  are  not  a  Christian 
people. 

"  And  a  Christian  people  we  must  become,  if  we 
would  not  add  one  more  to  the  wrecks  of  republics 
along  the  path  of  history.  To  this  result  there  is 
only  one  road.  Christian  missions  must  do  the 
work  they  have  so  splendidly  outlined.  .  .  . 
The  missionary  must  go  into  the  slums  of  the  city 
and  stay  there  till  they  brighten  into  Christian 
homes.  He  must  camp  on  the  trail  of  the  advanc- 
ing line  of  every  population  till  the  new  settle- 
ments become  the  abode  of  virtue  and  religion." 

For  a  quarter  of  a  century  men  who  forecast  the 
future  of  our  country  have  been  calling  to  the 
church  to  prepare  for  the  great  spiritual  conflict, 
The  Battle  of  Arma-Geddon,  the  gigantic  struggle 
for  this  country  by  the  forces  of  good  and  evil,  in 
the  battle-ground  of  the  West.  Such  graphic  de- 
scription as  that  of  Dr.  Thompson  is  enough  to  stir 
to  fever  heat  the  most  cold  blooded,  careless  Gallio, 
who  "  cared  for  none  of  those  things  " : 

"  When  Seward  said  the  time  was  coming  when 
our  Pacific  coast  would  be  the  theatre  of  the 
world's  greatest  events,  we  eastern  people  smiled 
in  our  serene  and  satisfied  conservatism.    We  were 


Argument  and  Appeal  249 

the  people,  and  wisdom  was  in  danger  of  dying 
with  us.  But  something  has  happened.  It  re- 
quires no  prophet  to  forecast  the  time  when  the 
Pacific  will  be  the  world's  central  sea.  One-third 
of  the  human  family  already  throngs  its  coasts,  and 
they  are  getting  ready  for  great  affairs.  The  two 
dominant  lines  of  the  human  march  approach  each 
other  on  that  sea.  The  Anglo-Saxon  is  leaving  the 
ancestral  home.  Most  of  them  have  pitched  their 
tents  on  American  shores.  The  old  world's  camps 
are  breaking  up,  and  more  are  coming.  They  are 
moving  westward,  drawn  by  the  events  of  Seward's 
prophecy.  From  the  other  side  another  column  is 
moving  eastward  ;  the  soon-to-be  second  race  of  all 
races  :  the  Slav,  slow,  steady,  sturdy ;  moving  like 
a  bear,  clumsily  rolling  over  the  steppes  of  Asia. 
He  approaches  the  Pacific.  China  gasps,  Japan 
doubles  her  artillery,  and  America  may  well 
ponder !  "What  does  it  all  portend  ?  Shall  these 
two  great  columns  meet?  The  one  armored 
with  new  ideas — the  other  heavy  with  the  impact 
of  the  old.  And  if  they  meet — what  then  ?  If 
our  lines  bend  upwards  along  Aleutian  Islands, 
those  broken  piers  of  immemorial  history,  if  the 
Slavic  lines  gather  across  the  narrow  straits,  what 
then  but  the  world's  Armageddon  and  the  final 
conflict  between  liberty  and  tyranny,  Christianity 
and  superstition  ?  " 

The  shock  of  battle  has  not  yet  come.  All 
parties  are  rallying  and  marshalling  their  forces. 
They  are  now  engaged  in  maneuvring  for  position 
and  occupying  strategic  points.     The  wise  general 


250  At  Our  Own  Door 

will  not  neglect  to  occupy  the  most  favorable  van- 
tage ground.  If  the  church  shall  win  in  this  great 
campaign  in  the  West,  she  must  occupy  the  great 
centres  of  population.  Delay  is  dangerous.  Some 
places  can  wait — others  cannot!  "With  many, 
"  now  is  the  accepted  time  " ;  "  now  is  the  day  of 
salvation."  For  the  Presbyterian  Church  it  is  just 
the  nick  of  time  in  the  new  country  of  the  West. 
The  struggle  for  Cemetery  Kidge  decided  the  fate 
of  the  battle  of  Gettysburg.  The  battle  of  Gettys- 
burg decided  the  Pennsylvania  campaign.  The 
Pennsylvania  campaign  decided  the  fate  of  the 
Confederacy.  So  in  a  certain  sense,  the  struggle 
for  Cemetery  Ridge  decided  the  fate  of  the  Con- 
federacy !  In  the  West  it  is  now  "  the  struggle 
for  Cemetery  Ridge"  with  us  in  many  places. 
Many  of  these  new  towns  springing  up  will  be  the 
strategic  points  of  the  future.  If  we  lose  them, 
we  lose  the  Territory ;  if  we  lay  our  hand  on  them, 
we  can  hold  the  country  for  Christ  and  the  Pres- 
byterian Church.  No  other  such  opportunity  will 
come  to  the  church  in  the  twentieth  century  !  It 
is  the  crisis  of  her  opportunity  !  If  lost,  it  goes 
by  forever  and  ever ! 

The  Presbyterian  Church  of  the  South  is  spe- 
cially interested  in  the  battle  of  the  West.  She 
must  help  to  win  the  conflict  for  her  own  salvation. 
The  North  is  already  overcrowded.  The  West  is 
rapidly  filling.  The  time  is  coming  when  the  pub- 
lic lands  of  the  West  will  be  exhausted,  and  the 
streams  of  population  must  flow  southward.  What 
is  to  be  the  character  of  that  coming  tide  of  peo- 


Argument  and  Appeal  251 

pies  ?  Will  it  be  Christian  or  godless  ?  It  is  a 
question  of  tremendous  import  to  the  South  !  The 
unparalleled  development  of  the  South  is  attract- 
ing the  attention  of  the  world,  attracting  capital, 
attracting  business  enterprise,  attracting  popula- 
tion. Leaders  of  thought  in  the  Church  begin  to 
foresee  the  great  crisis  of  the  South,  as  indicated 
in  the  language  of  Rev.  P.  H.  Gwinn :  "  South- 
ward the  star  of  Empire  moves  to-day, — the  Em- 
pire of  capital.  The  annual  export  trade  of  the 
South  is  greater  by  $170,000,000  than  it  was  a  dec- 
ade ago.  Manufacturers  follow  in  the  wake  of 
a  growing  foreign  commerce.  In  1899,  New  Eng- 
land increased  her  spindles  three  and  a-half  per 
cent.,  while  the  South  increased  thirty-four  per  cent. 
.  .  .  To-day  there  is,  perhaps,  no  place  in  the 
world  where  God's  people  may  look  for  quicker  and 
better  returns  from  their  investments  than  within 
the  territory  covered  by  the  Southern  General  As- 
sembly. What  if  our  membership  were  increased 
during  the  next  decade  to  1,000,000 ;  and  what  if 
she  average  one  dollar  per  member  to  the  cause  of 
foreign  missions  ?  How  it  would  speed  the  Gospel 
in  all  lands.  Ought  not  such  splendid  results  to 
be  achieved  at  whatever  cost  ?  Will  not  the  Al- 
mighty hold  our  Church  responsible  for  as 
much  ?  " 

The  Southern  Church  was  financially  wrecked 
by  the  war,  and  for  a  whole  generation  was  en- 
gaged in  building  up  her  dismantled  homes  and 
broken  fortunes,  greatly  crippling  and  embarrass- 
ing her  missionary  enterprises.     Now  the  great 


252  At  Our  Own  Door 

struggle  with  abject  poverty  is  ended.  The  church 
of  the  South  is  growing  rich.  Will  she  use  her 
wealth  for  selfish  indulgence  and  display  ?  Or 
will  she  recognize  her  obligations  to  Christ  ?  Will 
she  rise  to  the  height  of  the  occasion  ?  Will  she 
meet  the  great  crisis  in  her  history  ? 

4.  There  remains  yet  one  more  consideration, 
the  greatest  of  appeals.  The  appeal  of  humanity, 
the  claims  of  the  destitute,  the  "  Macedonian  cry  " 
of  the  dying,  are  exceeded  in  pathos  and  power 
only  by  the  Cross  of  Christ.  If  "  the  life  and  death 
of  Christ  are  the  model  and  type  of  all  missionary 
effort,"  there  can  be,  and  ought  not  to  be,  any 
stronger  appeal  to  the  church  than  the  Cross.  Yet 
Christian  men  spend  so  much  more  for  cigars  and 
beverages  than  for  missions,  that  Bayley  says,  "  A 
deified  appetite  outranks  a  crucified  Christ "  in  His 
own  blood  bought  Church.  Church  of  Christ,  will 
ye  bear  longer  the  reproach  ?  Will  ye  not  tarry 
at  the  throne  of  Grace  till  ye  be  filled  with  the 
Spirit  of  Christ  ? 

"  Must  Jesus  bear  the  Cross  alone, 
And  all  the  world  go  free?  " 

The  Church  of  the  Redeemer  now  needs,  as  never 
before  in  her  history,  men  to  make  sacrifices  for 
Christ,  that  they  may  be  able  to  furnish  the  means 
for  giving  the  Gospel  to  those  "  scattered  abroad 
as  sheep  having  no  Shepherd."  The  Church  needs 
consecrated  ministers  who  are  willing  to  make  the 
sacrifice  of  themselves  for  Christ,  leaving  comfort- 


Argument  and  Appeal  253 

able  places  for  the  sake  of  the  unevangelized 
masses. 

In  one  of  his  campaigns,  at  a  critical  moment  in 
battle,  Napoleon  called  for  a  hundred  men  to  lead 
a  forlorn  hope,  explaining  that  it  meant  certain 
death  to  any  who  volunteered.  "  Now,"  said  he, 
"  let  any  man  who  is  willing  to  die  for  the  emperor 
step  out  of  ranks,"  and  the  whole  regiment  leaped 
forward  as  one  man  and  rang  their  muskets  at  his 
feet.  If  men  are  willing  to  die  for  a  man,  if  men 
are  willing  to  sacrifice  life  itself  for  an  emperor, 
are  there  not  those  in  the  blood  bought  Church  of 
Christ  who  are  willing  to  make  some  great  sacri- 
fice for  Christ  and  the  Church  ? 

Gathered  around  the  crucified,  but  now  risen 
Christ,  the  eleven  disciples  had  given  them  the 
most  powerful  object  lesson,  the  most  irresistible 
appeal  of  history : 

"And  when  He  had  thus  spoken.  He  showed 
them  His  hands  and  His  feet."  Those  hands  were 
pierced  hands,  and  those  feet  were  pierced  feet ! 
It  was  an  object  lesson  exhibiting  the  cost  of  re- 
demption. It  was  an  appeal  for  sacrifice  and  serv- 
ice, based  upon  the  Cross.  No  wonder  they  went 
from  the  presence  of  those  pierced  hands  and  feet, 
and  "  turned  the  world  upside  down."  Would  to 
God  the  Church  could  see  those  pierced  hands  and 
feet  to-day,  mutely,  passionately,  poAverfully,  ap- 
pealing for  sacrifice  and  service,  seemingly  saying : 

"  I  gave,  I  gave  My  life  for  thee, 
My  precious  blood  I  shed, 
What  hast  thou  given  for  Me?  " 


Index 


A3IEEICA,  World's  Last  Great 

Problem,  186 
Arizona,  183 
Armageddon,  249 
Army  Chaplains,  27 
Authorship  Demanded,  5 

"  Back  to  Christ,"  78 
Bacon,  Rev.  Silas,  quoted,  32 
"  Bitter  Cry  of    Outcast   Lon- 
don," quoted,  69 
Board  of  Home  Missions  Cre- 
ated, 23 
Books  Consulted,  5,  6 
Broughton,  Dr.  L.  G.,  Institu- 
tional Church,  84 

Candidates  for  the  Ministry, 

decrease  in,  55 
Carlyle,  Thomas,  quoted,  239 
"Central      Presbyterian," 

quoted,  65 
Chattanooga  Conference,  5 
Chicago,  Cosmopolitan  popula- 
tion, 66 
Chicago,  Degradation  of,  67 
Christ,  "  His    Hands  and  His 

feet,"  253 
Christian  Endeavor  World,   The, 

quoted,  101 
Christian  Herald,  quoted,  66 
Christian  Science  craze,  187 
Christian  Science  pantheism  re- 
vived, 188 
Christian    Science  propaganda, 

188 
Church  accredited.  The,  109 
Church  erection,  53 
Churches,  earliest,  14 
City,  Christ  weeping  over,  63 


City,  congestion  of,  peril  to  self, 

74 
City,  increase  in  population,  64 
City,  increase  accounted  for,  68 
City,  increase  multiplies  wick- 
edness, 72 
City,  increase  remedy  for,  69 
City  Missions,    explanation    of 

failure  of,  81 
City  Missions,  Presbyterian,  87 
City  Missions,  problem  of,  77 
City,  the  peril  of  Commercial- 
ism, 73 
Clark,  Dr.  J.  B.,  quoted,  175, 

179,  182 
Clark,  Jas.  Freeman,  quoted,  75 
Clay,  Henry,  quoted,  161 
Cleveland,  Ex-President,  quot- 
ed, 103 
Cleveland,   Dr.   T.   P.,  elected 

Secretary  ad  interim,  37 
Converse,    Dr.   F.   B.,   quoted, 

105 
Craig,  Dr.  J.  N.,  elected  Secre- 
tary, 36 
Craig,  Dr.  J.  N.,  tragic  death, 

37 
Craig,  Dr.  J.  N.,  quoted,  27 

Dabney,  President,  quoted,  99 
Davis,    Eev.   E.   Mac.,  quoted, 

97 
Davis,  Richard  Harding,  quoted, 

174 
Domestic    Missions'     Advisory 

Committee,  26 
Domestic    Missions'    Executive 

Committee,  27 
Doyle,  Dr.  Sherman  H.,  quoted, 

104,  180,  191,  192,  246 


254 


Index 


255 


Durant,    Presbyterian    College 

of,  152 
Dutch,  First  Church  of  in  U.  S., 

13 

Education,  value  of  Christian, 

153 
Eliot,  Apostle  to  Indians,  145 

Foes  of  the  Chuech  Christian 

Science,  187 
Foes  of  Mohammedanism,  185 
Foea  of  Mormonism,  189 
Foes,  remedy  for.  Home  Mis- 
sions, 200 
Foes  of  Theosophists,  189 
Forward  Movement,  result  of, 

59 
France,  failure  of,  12 
Friends — women,  201 

Genebal  ASSE3IBLY  organized, 

15 
Gibbons,  Mrs.  Bella  McCallum, 

quoted,  149 
Graybill,   Kev.  A.  T.,  quoted, 

134 
Guernsey,  Miss  Alice,  quoted, 

101 
Guerrant,   Dr.   E.  O.,  quoted, 

102 
Gwinn,  Eev.  P.  H.,  quoted,  24, 

33,  37,  41,  45,  199,  243,  251 

HAEEISON,    EX-PEE9IDENT, 

quoted,  243 

Hoge,  Dr.  Moses  D.,  quoted,  26 

Home  Missions,  ad  Int.  Com. 
on,  39 

Home  Missions,  analogy  of  na- 
ture, 52 

Home  Missions,  appeal  of  the 
Cross  for,  252 

Home  Missions,  at  the  first  Gen- 
eral Assembly,  17 

Home  Missions,  basis  of  all  ope- 
rations, 55 

Home  Minions,  basis  of  Foreign 
Missions,  55 


Home  Missions,  Board  created, 
23 

Home  Missions,  changes  in  ad- 
ministration, 38 

Home  Missions,  first  standing 
committee  on,  21 

Home  Missions,  hope  of  the  fu- 
ture, 246 

Home  Missions,  Presbyterian- 
ism  creates  obligation  for,  244 

Home  Missions,  present  plan  of, 
39 

Home  Missions,  results  of,  44 

Home  Missions,  scope  of,  50 

Home  Missions,  self  interest 
necessitates,  247 

Home  Missions,  three  depart- 
ments of,  236 

Home  Missions,  world  wide 
evangelism  argument  for,  240 

Home  Missionaries  first  ap- 
pointed, 18-21 

Home  Missionary,  First 
Monthly,  23 

Home  Missionaries,  form  of 
commission  for,  19 

Home  Missionary  funds,  first 
grant  of,  16 

Home  Missionaries,  individual 
support  of,  59 

Indians,  Aborigines  of  Amer- 
ica, 139 
Indians,  care  of,  29 
Indians,  character  of,  140,  149 
Indians,  Dawes  Commission  for, 

159 
Indians,  distribution  of,  157 
Indians,  first  attempts  to  evan- 
gelize, 145 
Indians,  Industrial  Schools  for, 

155 
Indians,  intermarriage  with,  160 
Indians,    lauds  of,   purchasing, 

161 
Indians,  manner  of  worship,  151 
Indians,  miscellaneous  Missions, 

146 
Indians,  peace  policy,  144 


256 


Index 


Indians,  policy  of  the  Govern- 
ment, 158 

Indians,  Presbyterian  Missions 
among,  147,  150 

Indians,  revenues  of,  158 

Indians,  Southern  Presbyterian 
Missions  among,  148 

Indians,  schools  for,  153 

Indian  Territory,  155 

Indian  Territory  Misnomer,  156 

Indian  Territory,  opportunity 
for  Presbyterianism,  162 

Indian,  treatment  of,  141, 143 

KiNCAiD,    William,    quoted, 

241 
King  College,  Tennessee,  105 

"  Land  of  the  Sky,"  The,  90 
LawtoD,  Oklahoma,  remarkable 

grovrth,  178 
"Leavening   the    Nation," 

quoted,  13,  20,  56,  86,  165, 

175,  179,  241 
Lees-McEae  institute,  105 
Leyburn,  Dr.  John,  Secretary, 

27 
Louisiana  Purchase,  166 

McKemie,  Francis,  14,  15 

"  Man,  The  Forgotten,"  91 

Mayflovrer  Compact,  13 

Mcllwaine,  Dr.  Kichard,  elected 
Secretary,  36 

McKelway,  Dr.  A.  J.,  quoted, 
63 

Mecklenburg  declaration,  94 

Mexicans,  evangelization  of,  in- 
directly reaching  Mexico,  133 

Mexicans,  immigration,  131 

Mexicans  in  Texas,  51 

Mexicans,  Missions  inaugurated, 
134 

Mexicans,  Missions,  results,  135 

Mexicans,  nominal  Roman  Cath- 
olics, 132 

Mexicans,  present  needs,  137 

Minton,  Dr.  H.  C,  quoted,  22 


"  Minute  Man  on  the  Frontier," 

quoted,  177,  180 
Missions,  attitudes  towards,  49 
Missions,  cooperation  in,  60 
Missions,  departments  of,  50 
Missions,  the  program  of,  48 
Morgan,  Hon.  T.  J.,  quoted,  142 
Mormonism,  conflicts  vrith,  192 
Mormonism,  designs  of,  195 
Mormonism,  ecclesiastic  despot- 
ism of,  193 
Mormonism,   Indictment  of 
Evangelical  Churches  against, 
194 
Mormonism  invading  the  East, 

198 
Mormonism,  Missionary  in 

Switzerland,  194 
Mormonism,  origin  of,  190 
Mormonism,  proselyting  meth- 
ods, 197 
Morris,  Dr.  S.  L.,  elected  Secre- 
tary, 37 
Moultrie,  Georgia,  244 
Mountaineers,  ancestry  of,  92 
Mountaineers   and    Catechism, 

106 
Mountaineers,  Anglo-Saxons,  95 
Mountaineers,  characteristics  of, 

96 
Mountaineers,     diflSculties      in 

evangelizing,  108 
Mountaineers,  population  of,  92 
Mountaineers,  school    facilities 

of,  98 
Munsey^s  Magazine,  quoted,  178 

Negroes,  care  of  Home  Mis- 
sions, 28 
Negroes,  characteristics,  114 
Negroes,  Executive  Committee 

of  colored  evangelization,  29 
Negroes,  first  great  need  of,  122 
Negroes,  first  step  of  progress, 

121 
Negroes,  moral  status  of,  117 
Negroes,  other  needs  of,  126 
Negroes,  pastors  of,  29 
Negroes,  quality  of  labor  of,  115 


Index 


257 


Negroes,   redeeming   traits    of, 

116 
Negroes,  religious  life  of,  120 
Negroes,  second  great  need  of, 

124 
Negroes,  slavery,  blessing  in  dis- 
guise to,  113 
Negroes,  splendid  opportunities 

of,  119 
Negroes,  social  impurity  of,  118 
Negroes,  Stillman  Institute  for, 

127 
Negroes,  two  classes  of,  112 
New  Mexico,  area  of,  180 
New  Mexico,  oldest  Colony  in 

U.  S.,  180 
New  Mexico,  religion  of,  181 
New  Mexico,  religious  progress 

of,  182 
New    Mexico,    Southern    Pres. 

Church  in,  183 
Newport  News,  Virginia,  243 

Oklahosla.,  Cherokee  Strip 
opened,  175 

Oklahoma,  opening  of  Northern 
Section,  174 

Oklahoma,  origin  of,  174 

Oklahoma,  religious  progress  of, 
179 

Oklahoma,  showing  of  Commit- 
tee on  Statehood  for,  179 

Oklahoma,  Southern  Presby- 
terian Church  in,  180 

Oklahoma,  Southern  Section 
opened,  178 

Opportunity,  crisis  of,  250 

"Ordinance  of  1787,"  165 

"Our  Country,"  quoted,  75, 
77,  79,  167,  196 

Persecution,  method  of  propa- 
gating the  Faith,  11,  12 

Phelps,  Austin,  quoted,  240,  241 

Phillips,  Dr,  A.  L.,  elected  Sec- 
retary of  colored  evangeliza- 
tion, 29 

Plan  of  Union,  The,  20 


Presbyterian  Church,  Birth  of 
Southern,  24 

Presbyterian  Church,  Child  of 
Home  Missions,  16 

Presbyterian  Church,  costliest 
mistake  of,  58 

"  Presbyterian  Home  Missions," 
quoted,  147 

Presbyterian  Church,  sources  of 
American,  11 

Presbyterianism,  humble  be- 
ginnings of,  16 

Presbyterianism,  statistics  of,  46 

Presbytery,  first  in  the  U.  S.,  15 

Rice,  Dr.  John  H.,  quoted,  24 
Eoosevelt,  President,  quoted,  93 

Scepticism,  the  cure  for  the 
world's,  110 

Schools,  Mission,  54 

Schools,  Mission,  always  in  con- 
nection with  the  Church,  103 

Schools,  Northern  Presbyterian 
Mission,  104 

Schools,  Southern  Presbyterian 
Mission,  105 

Scotch-Irish  element,  14,  93 

Snedecor,  Dr,  J.  G.,  elected 
Secretary  of  colored  evangel- 
ization, 29 

Southern  Presbyterian,  birth  of, 
24 

Spain,  failure  of,  12 

"Spring  Resolutions,"  famous, 
25 

Stillman  Institute,  127 

Strong,  Dr.  Josiah,  quoted,  43, 
67,  71,  163,  169,  183 

Sustentation,  Executive  Com- 
mittee of,  34 

Synodical  Evangelization,  com- 
parative statistics,  234 

Synodical  Evangelization,  origin 
of,  218 

Synodical  Evangelization  iu 
Alabama,  218 

Synodical  Evangelization  in 
Arkansas,  220 


258 


Index 


Synodical     Evangelization     in 

Florida,  221 
Synodical     Evangelization     in 

Georgia,  222 
Synodical     Evangelization     in 

Kentucky,  223 
Synodical     Evangelization     in 

Louisiana,  226 
Synodical     Evangelization     in 

Mississippi,  227 
Synodical     Evangelization     in 

Missouri,  227 
Synodical     Evangelization     in 

North  Carolina,  229 
Synodical     Evangelization     in 

South  Carolina,  230 
Synodical     Evangelization     in 

Tennessee,  231 
Synodical     Evangelization     in 

Texas,  231 
Synodical     Evangelization     in 

Virginia,  233 


Texas,  annexation  of,  166 
Texas,  area  of,  168 
Texas,  benevolences  of,  172 
Texas,  comparative  progress  of 

Presbyterian  Church  in,  171 
Texas,  future  prospects  of,  173 
Texas,  peculiar  problems  of  170, 
Texas,  resources  of,  169 
Texas,  Synod  of,  argument  for 

Home  Missions,  246 
Thomas,  Oklahoma,  remarkable 

origin  of,  178 


Thompson,    Dr.    Chas.    L., 

quoted,  22,  46,  167,  247,  248 
"Twentieth     Century     City," 
quoted,  73,  75,  81 

"  Under  Our  Flag,"  quoted, 
100,  198 

Watson,  Thos.  E.,  quoted,  94 
West,  comparative  statistics  of 

the,  166 
West,  divided  from  the  East,  164 
West,    fictitious    boundaries  of 

the,  163 
West,  marvellous  future  of  the, 

183 
West,  The  South  interested  in 

the,  250 
West,  The  struggle  for  the,  61 
Western  Texas,  the  Presbytery 

of,  130 
Wilson,  Dr.  J.  Leighton,  Secre- 
tary, 27 
Woman,  Christ  eulogizes,  209 
Woman,  indebtedness  to  Christ, 

215 
Woman  in  the  primitive  church, 

211 
Woman,  Missionary  Societies  of, 

205 
Woman  Missionary  Societies  in 

Southern  Church,  206 
Woman    Sacrifices   for   Christ, 

213 
Woman  True  to  Christ,  208 
Woman,  work  of,  201,  203 


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